Topological insulators form a novel state of matter that provides new opportunities to create unique quantum phenomena. While the materials used so far are based on semiconductors, recent theoretical studies predict that also strongly correlated systems can show non-trivial topological properties, thereby allowing even the emergence of surface phenomena that are not possible with topological band insulators. From a practical point of view, it is also expected that strong correlations will reduce the disturbing impact of defects or impurities, and at the same increase the Fermi velocities of the topological surface states. The challenge is now to discover such correlated materials. Here, using advanced x-ray spectroscopies in combination with band structure calculations, we infer that CeRu4Sn6 is a strongly correlated material with non-trivial topology.
We investigated the crystal-electric field ground state of the 4f manifold in the strongly correlated topological insulator SmB_{6} using core-level nonresonant inelastic x-ray scattering. The directional dependence of the scattering function that arises from higher multipole transitions establishes unambiguously that the Γ_{8} quartet state of the Sm f^{5} J=5/2 configuration governs the ground-state symmetry and, hence, the topological properties of SmB_{6}. Our findings contradict the results of density functional calculations reported so far.
We present linear polarization-dependent soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy data at the Ce M4,5 edges of Cd and Sn doped CeCoIn5. The 4f ground state wave functions have been determined for their superconducting, antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic ground states. The absence of changes in the wave functions in CeCo(In1−xCdx)5 suggests the 4f -conduction electron (cf ) hybridization is not affected by globally Cd doping, thus supporting the interpretation of magnetic droplets nucleating long range magnetic order. This is contrasted by changes in the wave function due to Sn substitution. Increasing Sn in CeCo(In1−ySny)5 compresses the 4f orbitals into the tetragonal plane of these materials, suggesting enhanced cf hybridization with the in-plane In(1) atoms and a homogeneous altering of the electronic structure. As these experiments show, the 4f wave functions are a very sensitive probe of small changes in the hybridization of 4f and conduction electrons, even conveying information about direction dependencies.
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