2021/11/15 by Thomas E. Millichamp, Millichamp, Thomas E., David P. Billington +19
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Rare-earth and actinide compounds #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) #Topological Materials and Phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2111.07727
openalex publication_date 2021/11/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The quest to understand the nature of the electronic state in SmB6 has been challenging, perplexing and surprising researchers for over half a century. In the theoretically predicted topological Kondo insulator SmB6, the nature of the bulk electronic structure is not characterised unambiguously by quantum oscillations due to contrary interpretations. One simple definition of an electrical insulator is a material that lacks a Fermi surface and here we report the results of our investigation into its existence in SmB6 by Compton scattering. Compton scattering measures occupied electron momentum states, is bulk sensitive due to the high energy of the incoming photons and is also an ultra-fast probe of the correlated many-body electron wavefunction. Remarkably, direct evidence for a three-dimensional remnant Fermi surface is observed. However, a further dichotomy is raised in that the full occupancy expected of a conventional metal is not reproduced. Our observation of a remnant Fermi surface using a momentum-resolved probe provides significant new evidence that the paradigm of a bulk insulator is not robust for SmB6.