Abstract
SmB6, a well-known Kondo insulator, exhibits a transport anomaly at low temperature. This anomaly is usually attributed to states within the hybridization gap. Recent theoretical work and transport measurements suggest that these in-gap states could be ascribed to topological surface states, which would make SmB6 the first realization of topological Kondo insulator. Here by performing angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments, we directly observe several dispersive states within the hybridization gap of SmB6. These states show negligible kz dependence, which indicates their surface origin. Furthermore, we perform photoemission circular dichroism experiments, which suggest that the in-gap states possess chirality of the orbital angular momentum. These states vanish simultaneously with the hybridization gap at around 150 K. Together, these observations suggest the possible topological origin of the in-gap states.
Highlights
SmB6, a well-known Kondo insulator, exhibits a transport anomaly at low temperature
The negative magnetoresistance can be understood in the context of Kondo effect, where the Kondo singlet will be partially broken by the magnetic field, which releases the localized d-band electrons and lowers the resistivity
The basic electronic structure of these surface states qualitatively agrees with those topological surface states predicted in refs [16,17] remarkably well, there are some complications in the circular dichroism (CD) that are still to be understood
Summary
SmB6, a well-known Kondo insulator, exhibits a transport anomaly at low temperature This anomaly is usually attributed to states within the hybridization gap. By performing angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments, we directly observe several dispersive states within the hybridization gap of SmB6 These states show negligible kz dependence, which indicates their surface origin. We perform photoemission circular dichroism experiments, which suggest that the in-gap states possess chirality of the orbital angular momentum. These states vanish simultaneously with the hybridization gap at around 150 K. The photoemission circular dichroism (CD) of these in-gap states suggests the chirality of the orbital angular momentum (OAM), and these states vanish simultaneously with the hybridization gap around 150 K.
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