SmB6 is a promising candidate for topological Kondo insulator. In this letter, we report ultrafast carrier dynamics of SmB6. Two characteristic temperatures: T1=100 K and T2= 20 K are observed. T1 corresponds to the opening of the f-d hybridization gap revealed by an abrupt disappearance of terahertz f-band plasmon oscillations. Between T1 and T2, a phonon bottleneck effect dominates the photocarrier relaxation processes. Below T2, we observe the formation of in-gap states, which are strongly affected by optically injected hot electrons and the transient electron temperature change.
As an exemplary Kondo insulator, SmB6 has been studied for several decades; however, direct evidence for the development of the Kondo coherent state and the evolution of the electronic structure in the material has not been obtained due to the rather complicated electronic and thermal transport behavior. Recently, these open questions attracted increasing attention as the emergence of a time-reversal invariant topological surface state in the Kondo insulator has been suggested. Here, we use point-contact spectroscopy to reveal the temperature dependence of the electronic states in SmB6. We dem…
In heavy fermions the relaxation dynamics of photoexcited carriers has been found to be governed by the low energy indirect gap, E$_{g}$, resulting from hybridization between localized moments and conduction band electrons. Here, carrier relaxation dynamics in a prototype Kondo insulator YbB${}_{12}$ is studied over large range of temperatures and over three orders of magnitude. We utilize the intrinsic non-linearity of dynamics to quantitatively determine microscopic parameters, such as electron-hole recombination rate. The extracted value reveals that hybridization is accompanied by a strong…
We report the ultrafast optical pump-probe spectroscopy measurements on the recently discovered quantum critical ferromagnet CeRh$_6$Ge$_4$. Our experimental results reveal the two-stage development of the hybridization between localized $f$ moments and conduction electrons with lowering temperature, as evidenced by (1) the presence of hybridization fluctuation for temperatures from $\sim$85 K ($T^*$) to $\sim$140 K ($T^\dagger$), and (2) the emergence of collective hybridization below the coherence temperature, $T^*$, marked by the opening of an indirect gap of 2$Δ$ $\approx$12 meV. We also o…
We investigate the quasiparticle dynamics in the prototype heavy fermion CeCoIn$_5$ using ultrafast optical pump-probe spectroscopy. Our results indicate that this material system undergoes hybridization fluctuations before full establishment of the heavy electron coherence, as the temperature decreases from $\sim$120 K ($T^\dagger$) to $\sim$55 K ($T^*$ ). We reveal that the observed anomalous phonon softening and damping reduction below $T^*$ are directly associated with opening of an indirect hybridization gap. We also discover a distinct collective mode with an energy of $\sim$8 meV, which…
We use the density matrix renormalization group method to study the properties of the one-dimensional Kondo-Heisenberg model doped with Kondo holes. We find that the perturbation of the Kondo holes to the local hybridization exhibits spatial oscillation pattern and its amplitude decays exponentially with distance away from the Kondo hole sites. The hybridization oscillation is correlated with both the charge density oscillation of the conduction electrons and the oscillation in the correlation function of the Heisenberg spins. In particular, we find that the oscillation wavelength for intermed…
We study the deconfined quantum critical point of the Kondo-Heisenberg lattice in three dimensions using a fermionic representation for the localized spins. The mean-field phase diagram exhibits a zero temperature quantum critical point separating a spin liquid phase where the hybridization vanishes and a Kondo phase where it does not. Two solutions can be stabilized in the Kondo phase, namely a uniform hybridization when the band masses of the conduction electrons and the spinons have the same sign, and a modulated one when they have opposite sign. For the uniform case, we show that above a v…
The recent discovery of topological Kondo insulating behaviour in strongly correlated electron systems has generated considerable interest in Kondo insulators both experimentally and theoretically. The Kondo semiconductors CeT2Al10 (T=Fe, Ru and Os) possessing a c-f hybridization gap have received considerable attention recently because of the unexpected high magnetic ordering temperature of CeRu2Al10 (TN=27 K) and CeOs2Al10 (TN=28.5 K) and the Kondo insulating behaviour observed in the valence fluctuating compound CeFe2Al10 with a paramagnetic ground state down to 50 mK. We are investigating …
We report a detailed and comparative study of the single crystal CeCoInGa$_3$ in both experiment and theory. Resistivity measurements reveal the typical behavior of Kondo lattice with the onset temperature of coherence, $T^*\approx 50\,$K. The magnetic specific heat can be well fitted using a spin-fluctuation model at low temperatures, yielding a large Sommerfeld coefficient, $γ\approx172\,$mJ/mol K$^2$ at 6 K, suggesting that this is a heavy-fermion compound with a pronounced coherence effect. The magnetic susceptibility exhibits a broad field-independent peak at $T_χ$ and shows an obvious an…
Cotunneling into Kondo systems, where an electron enters a $f$-electron material via a cotunneling process through the local-moment orbital, has been proposed to explain the characteristic lineshapes observed in scanning-tunneling-spectroscopy (STS) experiments. Here we extend the theory of electron cotunneling to Kondo-lattice systems where the bulk hybridization between conduction and $f$ electrons is odd under inversion, being particularly relevant to Kondo insulators. Compared to the case of even hybridization, we show that the interference between normal tunneling and cotunneling processe…
Replacing a magnetic atom by a spinless atom in a heavy fermion compound generates a quantum state often referred to as a 'Kondo-hole'. No experimental imaging has been achieved of the atomic-scale electronic structure of a Kondo-hole, or of their destructive impact (Lawrence JM, et al. (1996) Kondo hole behavior in Ce0. 97La0. 03Pd3. Phys Rev B 53:12559-12562; Bauer ED, et al. (2011) Electronic inhomogeneity in a Kondo lattice. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 108:6857-6861) on the hybridization process between conduction and localized electrons which generates the heavy fermion state. Here we report visu…
Using the slave-rotor mean-field theory, we study the formation of Kondo resonance in graphene induced from vacancies. At the Dirac neutrality point, we find acritical hybridization strength beyond which the Kondo resonance takes place, despite vanishing density of states. We also find that the line-shapes of the Kondo peak are entirely different from Lorentzian shown in normal metallic hosts. The dependence of Kondo temperature on the effective hybridization parameter of the spinon field turns out to be linear in contrast to the quadratic dependence in normal metals. Upon doping we find stron…
A recently developed continuous time solver based on an expansion in hybridization about an exactly solved local limit is reformulated in a manner appropriate for general classes of quantum impurity models including spin exchange and pair hopping terms. The utility of the approach is demonstrated via applications to the dynamical mean field theory of the Kondo lattice and two-orbital models. The algorithm can handle low temperatures and strong couplings without encountering a sign problem.
A new LDA+U band calculation is performed on the Kondo insulator material YbB$_{12}$ and an energy gap of about 0.001Ryd is obtained. Based on this, a simple tight-binding model with 5d$ε$ and 4f $Γ_8$ orbitals on Yb atoms and the nearest neighbor $σ$-bonds between them is constructed with a good agreement to the above the LDA+U calculation near the gap. The density of states is also calculated and the shape is found to be very asymmetric with respect to the gap. A formation mechanism of the gap is clarified for the first time in a realistic situation with the orbital degeneracies in both cond…
Discovery of a hybridization-wave electronic order in a van der Waals Kondo lattice
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院）；University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；Nanjing University（南京大学）；Beijing Institute of Technology（北京理工大学）
A necessary element for the predicted topological state in Kondo insulator SmB$_6$ is the hybridization gap which opens in this compound at low temperatures. In this work, we present a comparative study of the in-gap density of states due to Sm vacancies by Raman scattering spectroscopy and heat capacity for samples where the number of Sm vacancies is equal to or below 1 %. We demonstrate that hybridization gap is very sensitive to the presence of Sm vacancies. At the amount of vacancies above 1 % the gap fills in with impurity states and low temperature heat capacity is enhanced.
A detailed low-energy electronic structure of a Kondo insulator YbB$_{12}$ was revealed by a synergetic combination of ultrahigh-resolution laser photoemission spectroscopy (PES) and time-resolved PES. The former confirmed a 25-meV pseudogap corresponding to the Kondo temperature of this material, and more importantly, it revealed that a 15-meV gap and a Kondo-peak feature developed below a crossover temperature $T^\ast \sim 110$ K. In harmony with this, the latter discovered a very long recombination time exceeding 100 ps below $\sim$$T^\ast$. This is a clear manifestation of photoexcited car…
We study the Kondo resonance in a spin-1/2 single impurity Anderson model with a gapless conduction band using the equation of motion approach in order to obtain the impurity spectral function. We study two different scenarios for gapless systems: a purely power-law energy dependence of the density of states or a constant density of states with a gapless behavior near the Fermi level. We demonstrate that strong electron-electron correlations lead to a sharp peak in the impurity spectral function in the case of a large exchange coupling ($J>J_{c}$) or equivalently, a strong hybridization ($V>V_…
We report the temperature-dependent three-dimensional angle-resolved photoemission spectra of the Kondo semiconductor SmB$_6$. We found a difference in the temperature dependence of the peaks at the X and $Γ$ points, due to hybridization between the Sm 5d conduction band and the nearly localized Sm 4f state. The peak intensity at the X point has the same temperature dependence as the valence transition below 120 K, while that at the $Γ$ point is consistent with the magnetic excitation at Q=(0.5,0.5,0.5) below 30 K. This suggests that the hybridization with the valence transition mainly occurs …
The nature of the second order phase transition that occurs in URu2Si2 at 17.5 K remains puzzling despite intensive research over the past two and half decades. A key question emerging in the field is whether a hybridization gap between the renormalized bands can be identified as the long-sought 'hidden' order parameter. We report on the measurement of a hybridization gap in URu2Si2 employing a spectroscopic technique based on quasiparticle scattering across a ballistic metallic junction. The differential conductance exhibits an asymmetric double-peak structure, a clear signature for a Fano re…
We investigate Kondo physics in a host with a strongly diverging density of states. This study is motivated by a recent work on vacancies in the graphene honeycomb lattice, whose density of states is enhanced at low energies due to potential scattering. The generalized quantum impurity model describing the vacancy is shown to support a spin-1/2 (doublet) Kondo phase. The special role played by a diverging host density of states is examined in detail, with distinctive signatures associated with the powerlaw Kondo effect shown to appear in thermodynamic quantities and the scattering t matrix, wi…
We investigate the electronic structure of a Kondo lattice system, CeCuSb2 exhibiting significant mass enhancement and Kondo-type behavior. We observe multiple features in the hard x-ray photoemission spectra of Ce core levels due to strong final-state effects. The depth-resolved data exhibit a significant change in relative intensity of the features with the surface sensitivity of the probe. The extracted surface and bulk spectral functions are different and exhibit a Kondo-like feature at higher binding energies in addition to the well and poorly screened features. The core-level spectra of …
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院物理研究所凝聚态物理北京实验室）；Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学物理学院）；Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge（剑桥大学卡文迪许实验室）；Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University（查理大学数学物理系凝聚态物理系）；School of Sciences, Yanshan University（燕山大学理学院）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory（松山湖材料实验室）；Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学合肥国家实验室）
In frustrated magnets when magnetic ordering is suppressed down to low temperature, the formation of a quantum spin liquid becomes a possibility. How such a spin liquid manifests in the presence of conduction electrons is a question with potentially rich physical consequences, particularly when both the localized spins and conduction electrons reside on frustrated lattices. We propose a novel mechanism for symmetry breaking in systems where conduction electrons hybridize with a quantum spin liquid through Kondo couplings. We apply this to the pyrochlore iridate Pr2Ir2O7, which exhibits an anom…
The heavy fermion state with Kondo-hybridization (KH), usually manifested in f-electron systems with lanthanide or actinide elements, was recently discovered in several 3d transition metal compounds without f-electrons. However, KH has not yet been observed in 4d/5d transition metal compounds, since more extended 4d/5d orbitals do not usually form flat bands that supply localized electrons appropriate for Kondo pairing. Here, we report a doping- and temperature-dependent angle-resolved photoemission study on 4d Ca2-xSrxRuO4, which shows the signature of KH. We observed a spectral weight transf…
We propose a static auxiliary field approximation to study the hybridization physics of Kondo systems without the sign problem and use the mutual information to measure the intersite hybridization correlations. Our method takes full account of the spatial fluctuations of the hybridization fields at all orders and overcomes the artificial (first-order) phase transition predicted in the mean-field approximation. When applied to the two-impurity Kondo model, it reveals a logarithmically divergent amplitude mutual information near the so-called "Varma-Jones" fixed point and a large phase mutual in…
We studied the electronic structure of the Kondo lattice system Ce2Co0.8Si3.2 by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). The spectra obtained below the coherence temperature consist of a Kondo resonance, its spin-orbit partner and a number of dispersing bands. The quasiparticle weight related to the Kondo peak depends strongly on Fermi vectors associated with bulk bands. This indicates a highly anisotropic hybridization between conduction band and 4f electrons - V_{cf} in Ce2Co0.8Si3.2.
Despite of many efforts, we still lack a clear picture on how heavy electrons emerge and develop on the Kondo lattice. Here we introduce a key concept named the hybridization bond phase and propose a scenario based on phase correlation to address this issue. The bond phase is a gauge-invariant quantity combining two onsite hybridization fields mediated by inter-site magnetic correlations. Its probabilistic distribution decays exponentially with site distance, from which a characteristic length scale can be extracted to describe the spatial correlation of Kondo hybridizations. Our calculations …
Field-direction sensitivity of Kondo hybridization in UTe$_2$
NIST Center for Neutron Research（美国国家标准与技术研究院中子研究中心）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Maryland（马里兰大学物理与天文系）；Department of Materials Science, University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学帕克分校材料科学系）；Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory（橡树岭国家实验室中子散射部）；PSI Center for Neutron and Muon Sciences（瑞士保罗谢勒研究所中子与μ子科学中心）；Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich（苏黎世大学物理学院）
In order to promote our basic understanding on the Kondo behavior recently observed in europium compounds, we analyze an impurity Anderson model with seven $f$ electrons at an impurity site by employing a numerical renormalization group method. The local part of the model consists of Coulomb interactions among $f$ electrons, spin-orbit coupling $λ$, and crystalline electric field (CEF) potentials, while we consider the hybridization $V$ between local $f$ electrons and single-band conduction electrons with $a_{\rm u}$ symmetry. For $λ=0$, we observe the underscreening Kondo behavior for appropr…
Kondo hybridization in partially filled f-electron systems conveys significant amount of electronic states sharply near the Fermi energy leading to various instabilities from superconductivity to exotic electronic orders. UGe2 is a 5f heavy fermion system, where the Kondo hybridization is interrupted by the formation of two ferromagnetic phases below a 2nd order transition Tc ~ 52 K and a crossover transition Tx ~ 32 K. These two ferromagnetic phases are concomitantly related to a spin-triplet superconductivity that only emerges and persists inside the magnetically ordered phase at high pressu…
We propose that competition between Kondo and magnetic correlations results in a novel universality class for heavy fermion quantum criticality in the presence of strong randomness. Starting from an Anderson lattice model with disorder, we derive an effective local field theory in the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) approximation, where randomness is introduced into both hybridization and Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interactions. Performing the saddle-point analysis in the U(1) slave-boson representation, we reveal its phase diagram which shows a quantum phase transition from a spi…
Ultrafast laser pulse has provided a systematic way to inspect the dynamics of electrons in condensed matter systems. In this paper, by means of time-dependent density matrix renormalization group, we study an ultrafast laser driven Kondo lattice model, in which conduction electrons are strongly coupled with magnetically local moments. The single-particle spectral function due to strong correlation effects and photon emission in the non-equilibrium states under laser driving are calculated. We find laser field excited collective doublon-hole pairs and an associated transient melting of Kondo c…
A spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ Kitaev sublattice interacting with a subsystem of spinless fermions is studied on a honeycomb lattice when the fermion band is half filled. The model Hamiltonian describes a topological Kondo lattice with the Kitaev interaction, it is solved exactly by reduction to free Majorana fermions in a static $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge field. An yet unsolved problem of a hybridization of fermions and local moments in the Kondo lattice at low temperatures is solved in the framework of the model proposed. The Kondo hybridization gap is opened and the system is fixed in insulator and spin in…
We develop a microscopic theory of the single impurity Kondo effect on a metallic surface. We calculate the hybridization energies for the Anderson Hamiltonian of a magnetic impurity interacting with surface and bulk states and show that, contrary to the Kondo effect of an impurity in the bulk, the hybridization matrix elements are strongly dependent on the momentum around the Fermi surface. Furthermore, by calculating the tunneling conductance of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), we show that when the magnetic impurity is located at a surface the Kondo effect can occur with equal strengt…
We report an angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) study of $β$-YbAlB$_4$, which is known to harbor unconventional quantum criticality (QC) without any tuning. We directly observe a quasiparticle peak (QP), emerging from hybridization, characterized by a binding energy and an onset of coherence both at about 4 meV. This value conforms with a previously observed reduced Kondo scale at about 40 K. Consistency with an earlier study of carriers in $β$-YbAlB$_4$ via the Hall effect strongly suggests that this QP is responsible for the QC in $β$-YbAlB$_4$. A comparison with the sister polymorph $α$-Y…
We use scanning tunneling microscopy to investigate the (001) surface of cleaved SmB6 Kondo insulator. Variable temperature dI/dV spectroscopy up to 60 K reveals a gap-like density of state suppression around the Fermi level, which is due to the hybridization between the itinerant Sm 5d band and localized Sm 4f band. At temperatures below 40 K, a sharp coherence peak emerges within the hybridization gap near the lower gap edge. We propose that the in-gap resonance state is due to a collective excitation in magnetic origin with the presence of spin-orbital coupling and mixed valence fluctuation…
The electronic structure of the Kondo lattice CeIn3 has been studied by on-resonant angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy. A weakly dispersive quasiparticle band has been observed directly with an energy dispersion of 4 meV by photoemission, implying the existence of weak hybridization between the f electrons and conduction electrons. The hybridization is further confirmed by the formation of the hybridization gap revealed by temperature-dependent scanning tunneling spectroscopy. Moreover, we find the hybridization strength in CeIn3 is much we…
We propose a new phenomenological framework for three classes of Kondo lattice materials that incorporates the interplay between the fluctuations associated with the antiferromagnetic quantum critical point and those produced by the hybridization quantum critical point that marks the end of local moment behavior. We show that these fluctuations give rise to two distinct regions of quantum critical scaling: hybridization fluctuations are responsible for the logarithmic scaling in the density of states of the heavy electron Kondo liquid that emerges below the coherence temperature T*; while the …
We consider the Kondo effect arising from a hydrogen impurity in graphene. As a first approximation, the strong covalent bond to a carbon atom removes that carbon atom without breaking the $C_{3}$ rotation symmetry, and we only retain the Hubbard interaction on the three nearest neighbors of the removed carbon atom which then behave as magnetic impurities. These three impurity spins are coupled to three conduction channels with definite helicity, two of which support a diverging local density of states (LDOS) $\propto 1/ [ | ω\ | \ln ^{2}( Λ/| ω\ | \ ) \ ] $ near the Dirac point $ω\rightarrow …
Mott-Derived Local Moments and Kondo Hybridization in a d-electron Kagome lattice
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院物理研究所凝聚态物理国家实验室）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；State Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Physics, Department of Physics, Tsinghua University（清华大学物理系低维量子物理国家重点实验室）；National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures and Department of Physics, Nanjing University（南京大学固体微结构物理全国重点实验室及物理学院）；Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院化学物理研究所）
We study the quasiparticle spectrum in an underscreened Kondo-lattice (KL) model that involves a single spin degenerate conduction band and two crystalline-electric-field (CEF) split Kramers doublets coupled by both orbital-diagonal and non-diagonal exchange interactions. We find the three quasiparticle bands of the model using a constrained fermionic mean field approach. While two bands are similar to the one-orbital model a new genuinely heavy band inside the main hybridization gap appears in the quasiquartet model. Its dispersion is due to effective hybridization with conduction states but …
We introduce a simple model to describe the formation of heavy Weyl semimetals in non-centrosymmetric heavy fermion compounds under the influence of a parity-mixing, onsite hybridization. A key aspect of interaction-driven heavy Weyl semimetals is the development of surface Kondo breakdown, which is expected to give rise to a temperature-dependent re-configuration of the Fermi arcs and the Weyl cyclotron orbits which connect them via the chiral bulk states. Our theory predicts a strong temperature dependent transformation in the quantum oscillations at low temperatures. In addition to the effe…
We utilize terahertz time domain spectroscopy to investigate thin films of the heavy fermion compound SmB6, a prototype Kondo insulator. Temperature dependent terahertz (THz) conductivity measurements reveal a rapid decrease in the Drude weight and carrier scattering rate at ~T*=20 K, well below the hybridization gap onset temperature (100 K). Moreover, a low-temperature conductivity plateau (below 20K) indicates the emergence of a surface state with an effective electron mass of 0.1me. Conductivity dynamics following optical excitation are also measured and interpreted using Rothwarf-Taylor (…
We present a powerful and general approach to describe the coupling of Majorana fermions to external leads, of interacting or non-interacting electrons. Our picture has the Klein factors of bosonization appearing as extra Majoranas hybridizing with the physical ones. We demonstrate the power of this approach by solving a highly nontrivial SO(M) Kondo problem arising in topological superconductors with M Majorana-lead couplings, allowing for arbitrary M and for conduction electron interactions. We find that these topological Kondo problems give rise to robust non-Fermi liquid behavior, even for…
Fast and dynamical control of quantum phases is highly desired in the application of quantum phenomena in devices. On the experimental side, ultrafast laser pulses provide an ideal platform to induce femtosecond dynamics in a variety of materials. Here, we show that a laser pulse driven heavy fermion system, can be tuned to dynamically evolve into a phase, which is not present in equilibrium. Using the state-of-the-art time-dependent variational Monte Carlo method, we perform numerical simulations of realistic laser pulses applied to the Kondo Lattice model. By tracking spin and charge degrees…
We theoretically investigate the nature of laser-irradiated Kondo insulators. Using Floquet theory and slave boson approach, we study a periodic Anderson model and derive an effective model which describes the laser-irradiated Kondo insulators. In this model, we find two generic effects induced by laser light. One is the dynamical localization, which suppresses hopping and hybridization. The other is the laser-induced hopping and hybridization, which can be interpreted as a synthetic spin-orbit coupling or magnetic field. The first effect drastically changes the behavior of the Kondo effect. E…
Motivated by recent experimental interest in tunneling into heavy electron materials, we present a theory for electron tunneling into a Kondo lattice. The passage of an electron into the Kondo lattice is accompanied by a simultaneous spin flip of the localized moments via cotunneling mechanism. We compute the tunneling current with the large-$N$ mean field theory. In the absence of disorder, differential tunneling conductance exhibits two peaks separated by the hybridization gap. Disorder effects lead to the smearing of the gap resulting in a Fano lineshape.
To discuss Kondo effects of a magnetic ion vibrating in the sea of conduction electrons, a generalized Anderson model is derived. The model includes a new channel of hybridization associated with phonon emission or absorption. In the simplest case of the localized electron orbital with the s-wave symmetry, hybridization with p-waves becomes possible. Interesting interplay among the conventional s-wave Kondo effect and the p-wave one and the Yu-Anderson type Kondo effect is found and the ground state phase diagram is determined by using the numerical renormalization group method. Two different …
The single impurity Kondo model at zero temperature in a magnetic field is solved by a semi-analytical approach based on the flow equation method. The resulting problem is shown to be equivalent to a resonant level model with a non-constant hybridization function. This nontrivial effective hybridization function encodes the quasiparticle interaction in the Kondo limit, while the magnetic field enters as the impurity orbital energy. The evaluation of static and dynamic quantities of the strong-coupling Kondo model becomes very simple in this effective model. We present results for thermodynamic…
The periodic Anderson lattice model for the crystalline electric field (CEF)split 4f quartet states is used to describe the Yb-based Kondo insulators/semiconductors. In the slave-boson mean-field approximation, we derive the hybridized quasiparticle bands, and find that decreasing the hybridization difference of the two CEF quartets may induce an insulator-to-metal phase transition. The resulting metallic phase has a hole and an electron Fermi pockets. Such a phase transition may be realized experimentally by applying pressure, reducing the difference in hybridization of the two CEF quartets.
