Kavli Affiliate: J. C. Seamus Davis
| First 5 Authors: Harris Pirie, Eric Mascot, Christian E. Matt, Yu Liu, Pengcheng Chen
| Summary:
A Kondo lattice is often electrically insulating at low temperatures.
However, several recent experiments have detected signatures of bulk
metallicity within this Kondo insulating phase. Here we visualize the
real-space charge landscape within a Kondo lattice with atomic resolution using
a scanning tunneling microscope. We discover nanometer-scale puddles of
metallic conduction electrons centered around uranium-site substitutions in the
heavy-fermion compound URu$_2$Si$_2$, and around samarium-site defects in the
topological Kondo insulator SmB$_6$. These defects disturb the Kondo screening
cloud, leaving behind a fingerprint of the metallic parent state. Our results
suggest that the mysterious 3D quantum oscillations measured in SmB$_6$ could
arise from these Kondo-lattice defects, although we cannot rule out other
explanations. Our imaging technique could enable the development of
atomic-scale charge sensors using heavy-fermion probes.
| Search Query: ArXiv Query: search_query=au:”J. C. Seamus Davis”&id_list=&start=0&max_results=3