Abstract
Kondo insulators are expected to transform into metals under a sufficiently strong magnetic field. The closure of the insulating gap stems from the coupling of a magnetic field to the electron spin, yet the required strength of the magnetic field–typically of order 100 T–means that very little is known about this insulator-metal transition. Here we show that Ce{}_{3}Bi{}_{4}Pd{}_{3}, owing to its fortuitously small gap, provides an ideal Kondo insulator for this investigation. A metallic Fermi liquid state is established above a critical magnetic field of only {B}_{{rm{c}}}approx 11 T. A peak in the strength of electronic correlations near {B}_{{rm{c}}}, which is evident in transport and susceptibility measurements, suggests that Ce{}_{3}Bi{}_{4}Pd{}_{3} may exhibit quantum criticality analogous to that reported in Kondo insulators under pressure. Metamagnetism and the breakdown of the Kondo coupling are also discussed.
Highlights
Kondo insulators are expected to transform into metals under a sufficiently strong magnetic field
Kondo insulators are a class of quantum materials in which the coupling between conduction electrons and nearly localized f -electrons may lead to properties that are distinct from those of conventional band insulators[1,2,3]
The very same magnetic field that produces quantum oscillations couples to the f -electron magnetic moments, driving the Kondo insulator inexorably towards a metallic state[17,18]
Summary
Kondo insulators are expected to transform into metals under a sufficiently strong magnetic field. Heat capacity experiments have shown that the electronic contribution undergoes an abrupt increase with increasing magnetic field[20,21]: in one case[20] the increase occurs within the insulating phase, suggesting the presence of in-gap states[22], whereas in another, it coincides[21] with the onset of an upturn in the magnetic susceptibility[18,19] and reports of metallic behavior[7,18]. We identify a magnetic field-tuned collapse of the Fermi liquid temperature scale TFL near Bc, indicating that Ce3Bi4Pd3 may exhibit a magnetic fieldtuned quantum as a function of critical point analogous to that observed in pressure[27,28,29,30,31].
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