Phase stability in SmB${}_6$

Abstract

We investigate flux-grown Sm-deficient Sm${}_x$B${}_6$ ($x<1$) by global and local tools, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), electronic transport, and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS). All these tools indicate a remarkable persistence of the SmB${}_6$ local structure in the flux-grown samples even for nominal Sm concentrations as low as $x=0.75$. As a consequence, the overall electronic properties of Sm${}_x$B${}_6$, and particularly the surface conductance at low temperature, is only affected locally by the Sm-deficiency.

9 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (7)

• Correlated Topological Insulators with Mixed Valence
• Direct observation of the spin texture in strongly correlated SmB6 as evidence of the topological Kondo insulator
• Hybridization, Inter-Ion Correlation, and Surface States in the Kondo Insulator SmB6
• Tuning bulk and surface conduction in topological Kondo insulator SmB6
• Additional energy scale in SmB${}_6$ at low temperature
• 4$f$ crystal field ground state of the strongly correlated topological insulator SmB${}_6$
• Irreversible proliferation of magnetic moments at cleaved surfaces of the topological Kondo insulator SmB6

Cited by in corpus (2)

• An STM perspective on hexaborides: Surface states of the Kondo insulator SmB${}_6$
• Surface excitations relaxation in the Kondo insulator Sm${}_{1-x}$Gd${}_x$B${}_6$