arXiv subjects

Justin Shotton

Publications and source records attributed to Justin Shotton.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Kondo driven suppression of charge density wave in Van der Waals material UTe$_3$

Competing electronic instabilities lie at the heart of emergent phenomena in quantum materials. In low-dimensional metals, Fermi-surface nesting can drive charge density wave (CDW) formation through a Peierls-like mechanism, while in strongly correlated systems, Kondo hybridization reconstructs the electronic structure by entangling localized moments with itinerant electrons. How these two fundamentally different instabilities interact$-$whether they coexist, compete, or mutually exclude each other$-$remains an open question. Here, we present suppression of charge density wave via the Kondo interaction in van der Waals material UTe$_3$. The angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) data reveals Fermi surface nesting under similar conditions as seen in RETe$_3$ compounds. Despite that, no CDW is found in UTe$_3$ after an extensive search. We demonstrate that strong hybridization between U 5$f$ electrons and Te $p$ states reconstructs the low-energy electronic structure, removes the instability, and preempts CDW formation. Our results reveal a rare example where Kondo hybridization preempts density wave formation, offering a new route to controlling ordering phenomena in correlated 2D materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Kondo Reshapes Multiple Orders in a $5f$ van der Waals Material

Electron interactions can drive magnetism, superconductivity, and topology. However, the realization of these phases remains limited in van der Waals materials, and the full landscape of strong correlations remains uncharted in any context. While interactions between conduction electrons and localized spins yield a well-known competition between heavy fermions (Kondo hybridization) and magnetic order (RKKY exchange), such spin-driven competition represents only part of the correlated electron phase diagram. Here we demonstrate that a heavy-fermion state can also compete with charge order, such as the charge density wave (CDW) state typical in the van der Waals $4f$ rare-earth tritellurides (RTe$_3$). We exploit the spatially-extended $5f$ orbitals of $\beta$-UTe$_3$ to enhance Kondo hybridization compared to its isostructural RTe$_3$ cousins. Our scanning tunneling spectroscopy on $\beta$-UTe$_3$ shows Fano resonances characteristic of the heavy fermion state, while our quasiparticle interference imaging reveals the disappearance of Fermi-level nesting and the appearance of flat bands. We extend the tritelluride tight-binding model to include Kondo coupling and quantify the Fermi surface reconstruction. Consistent with the destruction of nesting, we observe no CDW in $\beta$-UTe$_3$. Our expansion of the Kondo phase diagram beyond spin-mediated competition opens new possibilities for proximity-induced phase engineering in correlated van der Waals heterostructures.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Magnetization dynamics with time-dependent spin-density functional theory: significance of exchange-correlation torques

In spin-density-functional theory (SDFT) for noncollinear magnetic materials, the Kohn-Sham system features exchange-correlation (xc) scalar potentials and magnetic fields. The significance of the xc magnetic fields is not very well explored; in particular, they can give rise to local torques on the magnetization, which are absent in standard local and semilocal approximations. Exact benchmark solutions for a five-site extended Hubbard lattice at half filling and in the presence of spin-orbit coupling are compared with SDFT results obtained using orbital-dependent exchange-only approximations. The magnetization dynamics following short-pulse excitations is found to be reasonably well described in the exchange-only approximation for weak to moderate interactions. For stronger interactions and near transitions between magnetically ordered and frustrated phases, exchange and correlation torques tend to compensate each other and must both be accounted for.

cond-mat.str-el↗