| Literature DB >> 29720630 |
Debanjan Chowdhury1, Inti Sodemann2,3, T Senthil2.
Abstract
Samarium hexaboride is a classic three-dimensional mixed valence system with a high-temperature metallic phase that evolves into a paramagnetic charge insulator below 40 K. A number of recent experiments have suggested the possibility that the low-temperature insulating bulk hosts electrically neutral gapless fermionic excitations. Here we show that a possible ground state of strongly correlated mixed valence insulators-a composite exciton Fermi liquid-hosts a three dimensional Fermi surface of a neutral fermion, that we name the "composite exciton." We describe the mechanism responsible for the formation of such excitons, discuss the phenomenology of the composite exciton Fermi liquids and make comparison to experiments in SmB6.Entities:
Year: 2018 PMID: 29720630 PMCID: PMC5932084 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04163-2
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Nat Commun ISSN: 2041-1723 Impact factor: 14.919
Fig. 1Route to composite exciton Fermi liquids. a Slave-boson representation for the –hole in terms of a holon (blue circle) and spinon (black arrow), coupled mutually to a (zigzag line). b Strong binding of the conduction d–electron (red circle with arrow) to the holon leads to formation of a fermionic composite exciton coupled to the same a. c Two-band model when the f–valence fluctuates between n = 1 and 2. The composite exciton dispersion ε (blue dashed line) and a narrow spinon dispersion ε (orange dashed line) shown for the gauge-invariant combination ζ = t/t > 0. The hybridization between the two gives rise to two bands (orange and green solid lines) and as a result of the filling leads to a semi-metallic state (yellow shaded regions), where the volumes of the two pockets are equal. For ζ < 0, the resulting state would be an insulator
Fig. 2Metallic surface with insulating CEFL bulk. The bulk realizes a CEFL, a compensated semi-metal with particle and hole-like pockets (as shown in Fig. 1c), that have both fCE and spinon-like character (see Fig. 1a, b for a carricature of the excitations). Upon approaching the surface, it possible for the fCE to unbind as a result of reduced U/t in a region of typical size ~ξ, thereby liberating the d–electrons and holons, which may Bose condense. The latter leads to confinement and the resulting state is then a decoupled metallic surface. Only the top and bottom surfaces are shown for clarity