TY - JOUR
T1 - Visualizing heavy fermion formation and their unconventional superconductivity in f-electron materials
AU - Aynajian, Pegor
AU - Da Silva Neto, Eduardo H.
AU - Zhou, Brian B.
AU - Misra, Shashank
AU - Baumbach, Ryan E.
AU - Fisk, Zachary
AU - Mydosh, John
AU - Thompson, Joe D.
AU - Bauer, Eric D.
AU - Yazdani, Ali
PY - 2014/6/15
Y1 - 2014/6/15
N2 - In solids containing elements with f-orbitals, the interaction between f-electron spins and those of itinerant electrons leads to the development of low-energy fermionic excitations with a heavy effective mass. These excitations are fundamental to the appearance of unconventional superconductivity observed in actinide- and lanthanide-based compounds. We use spectroscopic mapping with the scanning tunneling microscope to detect the emergence of heavy excitations with lowering of temperature in Ce- and U-based heavy fermion compounds. We demonstrate the sensitivity of the tunneling process to the composite nature of these heavy quasiparticles, which arises from quantum entanglement of itinerant conduction and f-electrons. Scattering and interference of the composite quasiparticles is used in the Cebased compounds to resolve their energy-momentum structure and to extract their mass enhancement, which develops with decreasing temperature. Finally, by extending these techniques to much lower temperatures, we investigate how superconductivity, with a nodal d-wave character, develops within a strongly correlated band of composite excitations.
AB - In solids containing elements with f-orbitals, the interaction between f-electron spins and those of itinerant electrons leads to the development of low-energy fermionic excitations with a heavy effective mass. These excitations are fundamental to the appearance of unconventional superconductivity observed in actinide- and lanthanide-based compounds. We use spectroscopic mapping with the scanning tunneling microscope to detect the emergence of heavy excitations with lowering of temperature in Ce- and U-based heavy fermion compounds. We demonstrate the sensitivity of the tunneling process to the composite nature of these heavy quasiparticles, which arises from quantum entanglement of itinerant conduction and f-electrons. Scattering and interference of the composite quasiparticles is used in the Cebased compounds to resolve their energy-momentum structure and to extract their mass enhancement, which develops with decreasing temperature. Finally, by extending these techniques to much lower temperatures, we investigate how superconductivity, with a nodal d-wave character, develops within a strongly correlated band of composite excitations.
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U2 - 10.7566/JPSJ.83.061008
DO - 10.7566/JPSJ.83.061008
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84924873440
VL - 83
JO - Journal of the Physical Society of Japan
JF - Journal of the Physical Society of Japan
SN - 0031-9015
IS - 6
M1 - 061008
ER -