Hybridized nature of pseudogap in Kondo insulators CeRhSb and CeRhAs.

We studied the electronic structure of Kondo insulators CeRhSb and CeRhAs using high-resolution photoemission spectroscopy. We found that the 4f-derived density of states shows a depletion (pseudogap) at E(F) in contrast to metallic Kondo materials. It was found that the size of the f pseudogap is smaller than that of conduction electrons ( c pseudogap) while both scale well with the Kondo temperature. The present results indicate that the hybridization between 4f and conduction electrons near E(F) is essential for the Kondo gap in the Ce-based compounds.