Magnetoresistance in the Spin-Orbit Kondo State of Elemental Bismuth

Abstract

Materials with strong spin-orbit coupling, which competes with other particle-particle interactions and external perturbations, offer a promising route to explore novel phases of quantum matter. Using LDA + DMFT we reveal the complex interplay between local, multi-orbital Coulomb and spin-orbit interaction in elemental bismuth. Our theory quantifies the role played by collective dynamical fluctuations in the spin-orbit Kondo state. The correlated electronic structure we derive is promising in the sense that it leads to results that might explain why moderate magnetic fields can generate Dirac valleys and directional-selective magnetoresistance responses within spin-orbit Kondo metals.

Electronic structure and thermoelectric transport of black phosphorus

“…Therein, each phosphorus atom has three nearest neighbors, two on the same zigzag chain and the third one located on a different zigzag chain on the other plane. Similar to graphite [28] and elemental bismuth [29], we performed first-principle local density approximation (LDA) calculations with the PY-LMTO package [37]. Experimental crystal structure parameters were used [36].…”

“…Strain-induced band gap modifications [3,23,24] with tunable semiconductor to anisotropic Dirac semimetal [25] or the existence of a superconducting phase transition under pressure [26] might be linked to selective low-energy electronic reconstruction with characteristics akin to correlated electron systems [27]. Consistent with graphite [28] and elemental bismuth [29], sizable many-body interactions qualifies bulk BP as orbital-selective semimetal hosting renormalized Fermi liquid (FL) electronic states at low energies. Here, we employ dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) in conjunction with ab initio density functional (DF) calculations [30] to prove the existence of intrinsic many-body correlation effects in the electronic states of bulk BP.…”

“…The detailed formulation of MO-IPT for correlated electron systems has already been described in detail [38] and used in the context of elemental p-band semimetals in Refs. [28,29], so we do not repeat the equations here.…”

“…As in Refs. [29,42], the only approximation made here is to ignore the k dependence of v a (k). A compelling reason for justifying this approximation is that different sources of scattering, neglected in our LDA+DMFT formulation but present in reality, like phonons and lattice defects, will partially degrade the quasiparticle momentum.…”

“…Here, we study correlation induced one-particle reconstruction in BP using combined LDA and DMFT methods [30]. In recent years, this scheme was used to shed light onto transport anisotropy in graphite [28] and on the electronic structure of elemental bismuth [29], which is the heavier group homologue, and which also display a layered, gray arsenic type structure. Both studies show good agreement with spectroscopy (graphite) and electrical transport (bismuth) measurements.…”