Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
Volume 111, Issue 21, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.216402
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Max Planck-UBC Centre for Quantum Materials
- Killam, Alfred P. Sloan, Alexander von Humboldt
- Canada Research Chairs Program
- NSERC
- CFI
- CIFAR Quantum Materials
- AFOSR-MURI [FA9550-09-1-0603]
- NSF [DMR-0952716]
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Materials Research [0952716] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
By a combined angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and density functional theory study, we discover that the surface metallicity is polarity driven in SmB6. Two surface states, not accounted for by the bulk band structure, are reproduced by slab calculations for coexisting B-6 and Sm surface terminations. Our analysis reveals that a metallic surface state stems from an unusual property, generic to the (001) termination of all hexaborides: the presence of boron 2p dangling bonds, on a polar surface. The discovery of polarity-driven surface metallicity sheds new light on the 40-year old conundrum of the low-temperature residual conductivity of SmB6, and raises a fundamental question in the field of topological Kondo insulators regarding the interplay between polarity and nontrivial topological properties.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available