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Thesis High-Resolution Photoemission Study of Kondo Insulators ...

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4.3. Results and Discussion 51<br />

spectrum <strong>of</strong> YbB12 while larger Gaussian broadening was needed for Yb0.5Lu0.5B12. The<br />

fits show that the peak position is ∼ 23 meV below EF for YbB12 and ∼ 31 meV for<br />

Yb0.5Lu0.5B12.<br />

We compare the He I spectra <strong>of</strong> YbB12, Yb0.5Lu0.5B12 and LuB12 1 in the upper<br />

panel <strong>of</strong> Fig. 4.7. The figure reveals a gradual recovery <strong>of</strong> the missing spectral weight in<br />

the B 2p density <strong>of</strong> states (DOS) around EF as Lu is substituted for Yb. Note that the<br />

spectral change occurs in a rather wide energy range <strong>of</strong> ∼ 40 meV, in comparison with<br />

the transport activation energy <strong>of</strong> YbB12 (∼ 6 meV). The spectrum <strong>of</strong> LuB12 could<br />

be fitted to a linearly varying DOS multiplied by the Fermi distribution function <strong>of</strong><br />

30 K as shown in the lower panel <strong>of</strong> Fig. 4.7; the solid curves in the upper panel are<br />

convolutions <strong>of</strong> the DOS curves in the lower panel with the instrumental resolution.<br />

The DOS curves employed to fit the spectra <strong>of</strong> Yb0.5Lu0.5B12 and YbB12 have a dip or<br />

pseudogap (produced by subtracting Gaussians from the linear DOS) around EF . The<br />

spectral intensity at EF for YbB12 thus turned out to be depressed by ∼ 25% compared<br />

to LuB12. Attempt to fit the spectra with a small (a few meV) but fully opened gap at<br />

EF has been unsuccessful.<br />

The relationship between the “pseudogap” <strong>of</strong> the ∼ 40 meV width and the ∼ 6 meV<br />

transport gap is not clear at present. A recent electron tunneling study <strong>of</strong> SmB6, which<br />

is another <strong>Kondo</strong> insulator with a transport activation energy <strong>of</strong> ∼ 4 meV [4.19], has<br />

revealed a broad dip <strong>of</strong> ∼ 40 meV width around EF [4.20]. Such a dip or pseudogap<br />

might be a characteristic feature <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Kondo</strong> insulators.<br />

In the framework <strong>of</strong> the Anderson-impurity model (AIM), the properties <strong>of</strong> an Yb<br />

ion in the <strong>Kondo</strong> singlet ground state are described by [4.7]<br />

δ = B exp(− πε0f Nf∆ ), ¯nf = ∆<br />

∆ + πδ , (4.1)<br />

Nf<br />

to lowest order in 1/Nf with Uff = ∞, where δ ≡ kBTK is the <strong>Kondo</strong> peak position<br />

in the PES spectra, B is the conduction-band width above EF , ε0 f is the bare<br />

f (f 13 → f 14 ) level measured from EF (ε0 f > 0), Nf =8 is the degeneracy <strong>of</strong> the<br />

4f7/2 level and ¯nf denotes the f-hole occupancy. We define the hybridization strength<br />

1 We have normalized these spectra to the intensity around ∼ 0.1 eV to discuss only the vicinity <strong>of</strong><br />

EF . On the other hand, in Chap. 6 we normalize the He I spectra <strong>of</strong> Yb1−xLuxB12 single crystals to<br />

the integrated intensity between 200 meV and 260 meV. Comparison between poly- and single-crystal<br />

spectra are shown in Chap. 6.

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