A RIXS investigation of the crystal-field splitting of Sm${}^{3+}$ in SmB${}_6$

Abstract

The crystal-field (CF) splitting of the ${}^6{H}_{5/2}$ Hund's rule ground state of Sm${}^{3+}$ in the strongly correlated topological insulator SmB${}_6$ has been determined with high resolution resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the Sm M${}_5$ edge. The valence selectivity of RIXS allows isolating the crystal-field-split excited multiplets of the Sm${}^{3+}$ (4$f^5$) configuration from those of Sm${}^{2+}$ (4$f^6$) in intermediate valent SmB${}_6$. The very large energy range of RIXS allows the crystal-field analysis of a high lying multiplet at about 2.4\,eV that has the same total angular momentum $J$ as the ground state so that ambiguities due to the elastic tail can be avoided. We find that the ${\Gamma }_7$ doublet and ${\Gamma }_8$ quartet of the ${}^6{H}_{5/2}$ Hund's rule ground state are split by ${\Delta }_{{}^6{H}_{5/2}}^{CF}$\,=\,20$\pm$10\,meV which sets an upper limit for the 4$f$ band width. This indicates an extremely large mass renormalization from the band structure value, pointing out the need to consider the coefficients of fractional parentage for the hopping of the 4$f$ electrons.

arXiv comment8 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (41)

• Topological Kondo Insulators
• Multiplet ligand-field theory using Wannier orbitals
• Surface electronic structure of the topological Kondo insulator candidate correlated electron system SmB6
• Low-temperature surface conduction in the Kondo insulator SmB${}_6$
• Correlated Topological Insulators with Mixed Valence
• Topological surface state in the Kondo Insulator Samarium Hexaboride
• Robust Surface Hall Effect and Nonlocal Transport in SmB6: Indication for an Ideal Topological Insulator
• Observation of in-gap surface states in the Kondo insulator SmB6 by photoemission
• Unconventional Fermi surface in an insulating state
• Direct observation of the spin texture in strongly correlated SmB6 as evidence of the topological Kondo insulator
• Surface and Bulk Electronic Structure of the Strongly Correlated System SmB${}_6$ and Implications for a Topological Kondo Insulator
• Cubic Topological Kondo Insulators
• Hybridization, Inter-Ion Correlation, and Surface States in the Kondo Insulator SmB6
• Polarity-driven surface metallicity in SmB${}_6$
• Hybridization gap and Fano resonance in SmB${}_6$
• Emergence of a coherent in-gap state in SmB6 Kondo insulator revealed by scanning tunneling spectroscopy
• Interaction Driven Subgap Spin Exciton in the Kondo Insulator SmB6
• One-dimensional edge state transport in a topological Kondo insulator
• Samarium hexaboride: A trivial surface conductor
• Kondo hybridisation and the origin of metallic states at the (001) surface of SmB6
• Additional energy scale in SmB${}_6$ at low temperature
• Weak Antilocalization and Linear Magnetoresistance in The Surface State of SmB6
• Exotic Kondo crossover in a wide temperature region in the topological Kondo insulator SmB6 revealed by high-resolution ARPES
• Large, high quality single-crystals of the new Topological Kondo Insulator, SmB6
• Termination-dependent Surface In-gap States in a Mixed-valent Topological Insulator: SmB${}_6$
• Quantum oscillations in flux-grown SmB6 with embedded aluminum
• SmB6 Photoemission: Past and Present
• 4$f$ crystal field ground state of the strongly correlated topological insulator SmB${}_6$
• Hysteretic Magnetotransport in SmB6 at Low Magnetic Fields
• Magnetotransport Measurements of the Surface States of Samarium Hexaboride using Corbino Structures
• Band symmetries of mixed-valence topological insulator: SmB6
• Pressure-resistant intermediate valence in Kondo insulator SmB6
• Bulk and surface electronic properties of SmB6: a hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study
• Temperature Dependence of Linked Gap and Surface State Evolution in the Mixed Valent Topological Insulator SmB6
• Non-trivial surface states of samarium hexaboride at the (111) surface
• A new exotic state in an old material: A tale of Samarium Hexaboride
• Surface and electronic structure of SmB${}_6$ through Scanning Tunneling Microscopy
• High-resolution resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering as a probe of the crystal electrical field in lanthanides demonstrated for the case of CeRh2Si2
• Determining the local low-energy excitations in the Kondo semimetal CeRu${}_4$Sn${}_6$ using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
• First evidence for a Sm${}^{3+}$-type contribution to the magnetic form factor in the quasielastic spectral response of intermediate valence SmB${}_6$
• Importance of orbital fluctuations for the magnetic dynamics in heavy-fermion compound SmB${}_6$

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Singlet magnetism in intermetallic UGa${}_2$ unveiled by inelastic x-ray scattering
• Investigation of metamagnetism and crystal-field splitting in pseudo-hexagonal CeRh${}_3$Si${}_2$
• Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study of doping and temperature dependence of low-energy excitations in La${}_{1-x}$Sr${}_x$VO${}_3$
• An STM perspective on hexaborides: Surface states of the Kondo insulator SmB${}_6$
• Quantum chemical insights into hexaboride electronic structures: correlations within the boron $p$-orbital subsystem
• High-resolution valence band RIXS at the actinide M${}_{4,5}$-edges
• Correlation Induced Magnetic Topological Phases in Mixed-Valence Compound SmB6
• Mapping out the emergence of topological features in the highly alloyed topological Kondo insulators Sm${}_{1-x}{M}_x$B${}_6$ ($M$=Eu, Ce)
• Distinct effect of Kondo physics on crystal field splitting in electron and spin spectroscopies