Transport gap in SmB6 protected against disorder

Yun Suk Eo; Alexa Rakoski; Juniar Lucien; Dmitri Mihaliov; Çağlıyan Kurdak; Priscila F S Rosa; Zachary Fisk

doi:10.1073/pnas.1901245116

Transport gap in SmB₆ protected against disorder

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Jun 25;116(26):12638-12641. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1901245116. Epub 2019 Jun 10.

Authors

Yun Suk Eo¹, Alexa Rakoski², Juniar Lucien², Dmitri Mihaliov², Çağlıyan Kurdak², Priscila F S Rosa³, Zachary Fisk⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1040; eohyung@umich.edu zfisk@uci.edu.
² Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1040.
³ Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545.
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 eohyung@umich.edu zfisk@uci.edu.

Abstract

The inverted resistance method was used in this study to extend the bulk resistivity of [Formula: see text] to a regime where the surface conduction overwhelms the bulk. Remarkably, regardless of the large off-stoichiometric growth conditions (inducing disorder by samarium vacancies, boron interstitials, etc.), the bulk resistivity shows an intrinsic thermally activated behavior that changes ∼7-10 orders of magnitude, suggesting that [Formula: see text] is an ideal insulator that is immune to disorder.

Keywords: heavy-fermion materials; semiconductors; topological insulator.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Boron Compounds / chemistry*
Electric Conductivity
Samarium / chemistry*
Thermal Conductivity

Substances

Boron Compounds
Samarium