arXiv subjects

Yi-feng Yang

Publications and source records attributed to Yi-feng Yang.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Electronic specific heat in BaFe$_{2-x}$Ni$_x$As$_2$

We have systematically studied the low-temperature specific heat of the BaFe$_{2-x}$Ni$_x$As$_2$ single crystals covering the whole superconducting dome. Using the nonsuperconducting heavily overdoped x = 0.3 sample as a reference for the phonon contribution to the specific heat, we find that the normal-state electronic specific heats in the superconducting samples may have a nonlinear temperature dependence, which challenges previous results in the electron-doped Ba-122 iron-based superconductors. A model based on the presence of ferromagnetic spin fluctuations may explain the data between x = 0.1 and x = 0.15, suggesting the important role of Fermi-surface topology in understanding the normal-state electronic states.

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arXiv2016

Two-Fluid Model for Heavy Electron Physics

The two-fluid model is a phenomenological description of the gradual change of the itinerant and local characters of the f-electrons with temperature and other tuning parameters and has been quite successful in explaining many unusual and puzzling experimental observations in heavy electron materials. We review some of these results and discuss possible implications of the two-fluid model in understanding the microscopic origin of heavy electron physics.

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arXiv2016

Spatial modulation of a unitary impurity-induced resonances in superconducting CeCoIn$_{5}$

Motivated by recent experimental progress in high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) techniques, we propose to investigate the local quasiparticle density of states around a unitary impurity in the heavy fermion superconductor CeCoIn$_{5}$. Based on the T-matrix approach we obtain a sharp nearly zero-energy resonance state (ZERS) in the strong impurity potential scattering localized around the impurity, and find qualitative differences in the spatial pattern of the tunneling conductance modulated by the nodal structure of the superconducting gap. These unique features may be used as a probe of the superconducting gap symmetry and in combination with the further STM measurements, may help to confirm the $d_{x^{2}-y^{2}}$ pairing in CeCoIn$_{5}$ at ambient pressure.

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arXiv2016

Toward a New Microscopic Framework for Kondo Lattice Materials

Understanding the emergence and subsequent behavior of heavy electrons in Kondo lattice materials is one of the grand challenges in condensed matter physics. In this perspective we review the progress that has been made during the past decade and suggest some directions for future research. Our focus will be on developing a new microscopic framework that incorporates the basic concepts that emerge from a phenomenological description of the key experimental findings.

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arXiv2015

Quantum critical scaling and superconductivity in heavy electron materials

We use the two fluid model to determine the conditions under which the nuclear spin-lattice lattice relaxation rate, $T_1$, of candidate heavy quantum critical superconductors can exhibit scaling behavior and find that it can occur if and only if their "hidden" quantum critical spin fluctuations give rise to a temperature-independent intrinsic heavy electron spin-lattice relaxation rate. The resulting scaling of $T_1$ with the strength of the heavy electron component and the coherence temperature, $T^*$, provides a simple test for their presence at pressures at which the superconducting transition temperature, $T_c$, is maximum and is proportional to $T^*$. These findings support the previously noted partial scaling of the spin-lattice relaxation rate with $T_c$ in a number of important heavy electron materials and provide additional evidence that in these materials their optimal superconductivity originates in the quantum critical spin fluctuations associated with a nearby phase transition from partially localized to fully itinerant quasiparticles.

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arXiv2015

A close look at antiferromagnetism in multidimensional phase diagram of electron-doped copper oxide

Emergency of superconductivity at the instabilities of antiferromagnetism (AFM), spin/charge density waves has been widely recognized in unconventional superconductors. In copper-oxide superconductors, spin fluctuations play a predominant role in electron pairing with electron dopants yet composite orders veil the nature of superconductivity for hole-doped family. However, in electron-doped ones the ending point of AFM is still in controversy for different probes or its sensitivity to oxygen content. Here, by carefully tuning the oxygen content, a systematic study of Hall signal and magnetoresistivity up to 58 Tesla on optimally doped La2-xCexCuO4+-δ (x = 0.10) thin films identifies two characteristic temperatures at 62.5+-7.5 K and 25+-5 K. The former is quite robust whereas the latter becomes flexible with increasing magnetic field, thereby linked to two- and three-dimensional AFM, evident from the multidimensional phase diagram as a function of oxygen as well as Ce dopants. Consequently, the observation of extended AFM phase in contrast to μSR probe corroborates an elevated critical doping in field, providing an unambiguous picture to understand the interactions between AFM and superconductivity.

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arXiv2015

Pressure-induced quantum phase transitions in topological insulator YbB6

Topological insulators (TIs) containing 4f electrons have recently attracted intensive interests due to the possible interplay of their non-trivial topological properties and strong electronic correlations. YbB6 and SmB6 are the prototypical systems with such unusual properties, which may be tuned by external pressure to give rise to new emergent phenomena. Here, we report the first observation, through in-situ high pressure resistance, Hall, X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption measurements, of two pressure-induced quantum phase transitions (QPTs) in YbB6. Our data revealthat the two insulating phases are separated by a metallic phase due to the pressure-driven valence change of Yb f-orbitals. In combination with previous studies, our results suggest that the two insulating states may be topologically different in nature and originate from the d-p and d-f hybridization, respectively. The tunable topological properties of YbB6 revealed in this study may shed light on the intriguing correlation between the topology and the 4f electrons from the perspective of pressure dependent studies.

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arXiv2015

Interplay of localized and itinerant behavior in the one-dimensional Kondo-Heisenberg model

We use the density matrix renormalization group method to study the interplay of the localized and itinerant behaviors in the one-dimensional Kondo-Heisenberg model. We find signatures of simultaneously localized and itinerant behaviors of the local spins and attribute this duality to their simultaneous entanglement within the spin chain and with conduction electrons due to incomplete hybridization. We propose a microscopic definition of the hybridization parameter that measures this "partial" itinerancy. Our results provide a microscopic support for the dual nature of f-electrons and the resulting two-fluid behavior widely observed in heavy electron materials.

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arXiv2014

The Emergence of Superconductivity in Heavy Electron Materials

Although the pairing glue for the attractive quasiparticle interaction responsible for unconventional superconductivity in heavy electron materials has been identified as the spin fluctuations that arise from their proximity to a magnetic quantum critical point, there has been no model to describe their superconducting transition at Tc that is comparable to that found by Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer (BCS) for conventional superconductors where phonons provide the pairing glue. Here we propose a phenomenological BCS-like expression for Tc in heavy electron materials, that is based on the unusual properties of the heavy electron normal state from which superconductivity emerges, and a simple model for the effective range and strength of the spin-fluctuation-induced quasiparticle interaction. We show that it provides both a physical explanation and the first quantitative understanding of the pressure-induced variation of Tc in the "hydrogen atoms" of unconventional superconductivity, CeCoIn5 and CeRhIn5, and predicts scaling behavior and a dome-like structure for Tc in all heavy electron quantum critical superconductors.

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arXiv2014

Quantum critical behavior in heavy electron materials

Quantum critical behavior in heavy electron materials is typically brought about by changes in pressure or magnetic field. In this communication, we develop a simple unified model for the combined influence of pressure and magnetic field on the effectiveness of the hybridization that plays a central role in the two-fluid description of heavy electron emergence. We show that it leads to quantum critical and delocalization lines that accord well with those measured for CeCoIn5, yields a quantitative explanation of the field and pressure induced changes in antiferromagnetic ordering and quantum critical behavior measured for YbRh2Si2, and provides a valuable framework for describing the role of magnetic fields in bringing about quantum critical behavior in other heavy electron materials.

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arXiv2013

Anomalous Hall effect in heavy electron materials

We propose a new empirical formula for the anomalous Hall effect in heavy electron materials based on a phenomenological two-fluid description of the f-electron states. The new formula incorporates two previous theories proposed by Fert and Levy in 1987 and Kontani et al. in the early 1990s and takes into account both incoherent and coherent skew scatterings from local and itinerant f-electrons. We perform experimental analysis in several heavy electron compounds and show that the new formula provides a consistent description of the evolution of the Hall coefficient in the whole temperature range down to only a few Kelvin.

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arXiv2012

Emergent states in heavy electron materials

We obtain the conditions necessary for the emergence of various low temperature ordered states (local moment antiferromagnetism, unconventional superconductivity, quantum criticality, and Landau Fermi liquid behavior) in Kondo lattice materials by extending the two-fluid phenomenological theory of heavy electron behavior to incorporate the concept of hybridization effectiveness. We use this expanded framework to present a new phase digram and consistent physical explanation and quantitative description of measured emergent behaviors such as the pressure variation of the onset of local moment antiferromagnetic ordering at T_N, the magnitude of the ordered moment, the growth of superconductivity within that ordered state, the location of a quantum critical point, and of a delocalization line in the pressure/temperature phase diagram at which local moments have disappeared and the heavy electron Fermi surface has grown to its maximum size. We apply our model to CeRhIn_5 and a number of other heavy electron materials and find good agreement with experiment.

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arXiv2011

Electronic inhomogeneity in a Kondo lattice

Inhomogeneous electronic states resulting from entangled spin, charge, and lattice degrees of freedom are hallmarks of strongly correlated electron materials; such behavior has been observed in many classes of d-electron materials, including the high-Tc copper-oxide superconductors, manganites, and most recently the iron-pnictide superconductors. The complexity generated by competing phases in these materials constitutes a considerable theoretical challenge-one that still defies a complete description. Here, we report a new manifestation of electronic inhomogeneity in a strongly correlated f-electron system, using CeCoIn5 as an example. A thermodynamic analysis of its superconductivity, combined with nuclear quadrupole resonance measurements, shows that nonmagnetic impurities (Y, La, Yb, Th, Hg and Sn) locally suppress unconventional superconductivity, generating an inhomogeneous electronic "Swiss cheese" due to disrupted periodicity of the Kondo lattice. Our analysis may be generalized to include related systems, suggesting that electronic inhomogeneity should be considered broadly in Kondo lattice materials.

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arXiv2010

Effective Low-Energy Model for f-Electron Delocalization

We consider a Periodic Anderson Model (PAM) with a momentum-dependent inter-band hybridization that is strongly suppressed near the Fermi level. Under these conditions, we reduce the PAM to an effective low-energy Hamiltonian, $H_{\rm eff}$, by expanding in the small parameter $V_0/t$ ( $V_0$ is the maximum inter-band hybridization amplitude and $t$ is the hopping integral of the broad band). The resulting model consists of a t-J f-band coupled via the Kondo exchange to the electrons in the broad band. $H_{\rm eff}$ allows for studying the f-electron delocalization transition. The result is a doping-induced Mott transition for the f-electron delocalization, which we demonstrate by density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations.

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arXiv2010

A predictive standard model for heavy electron systems

We propose a predictive standard model for heavy electron systems based on a detailed phenomenological two-fluid description of existing experimental data. It leads to a new phase diagram that replaces the Doniach picture, describes the emergent anomalous scaling behavior of the heavy electron (Kondo) liquid measured below the lattice coherence temperature, T*, seen by many different experimental probes, that marks the onset of collective hybridization, and enables one to obtain important information on quantum criticality and the superconducting/antiferromagnetic states at low temperatures. Because T* is ~J^2ρ/2, the nearest neighbor RKKY interaction, a knowledge of the single-ion Kondo coupling, J, to the background conduction electron density of states, ρ, makes it possible to predict Kondo liquid behavior, and to estimate its maximum superconducting transition temperature in both existing and newly discovered heavy electron families.

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arXiv2009

Magnetic excitations in Kondo liquid: Superconductivity and Hidden Magnetic Quantum Critical Fluctuations

We report Knight shift experiments on the superconducting heavy electron material CeCoIn$_5$ that allow one to track with some precision the behavior of the heavy electron Kondo liquid in the superconducting state with results in agreement with BCS theory. An analysis of the $^{115}$In nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) spin-lattice relaxation rate $T_1^{-1}$ measurements under pressure reveals the presence of 2d magnetic quantum critical fluctuations in the heavy electron component that are a promising candidate for the pairing mechanism in this material. Our results are consistent with an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point (QCP) located at slightly negative pressure in CeCoIn$_5$ and provide additional evidence for significant similarities between the heavy electron materials and the high $T_c$ cuprates.

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arXiv2009

The Fano effect in the point contact spectroscopy of heavy electron materials

We show that Fano interference explains how point contact spectroscopy in heavy electron materials probes the emergence of the Kondo heavy electron liquid below the same characteristic temperature T* as that seen in many other experiments, and why the resulting measured conductance asymmetry reflects the universal Kondo liquid behavior seen in these. Its physical origin is the opening of a new channel for electron tunneling beyond that available from the background conduction electrons. We propose a simple phenomenological expression for the resulting Fano interference that provides a good fit to the experimental results for CeCoIn$_5$, CeRhIn$_5$ and YbAl$_3$, over the entire range of bias voltages, and deduce a life-time of the heavy quasiparticle excitations that agrees well with recent state-of-the-art numerical calculations.

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arXiv2007

Universal Behavior in Heavy Electron Materials

We present our finding that an especially simple scaling expression describes the formation of a new state of quantum matter, the Kondo Fermi liquid (KL) in heavy electron materials. Emerging at $T^*$ as a result of the collective coherent hybridization of localized f electrons and conduction electrons, the KL possesses a non-Landau density of states varying as $(1-T/T^*)^{3/2}[1+\ln(T^*/T)]$. We show that four independent experimental probes verify this scaling behavior and that for CeIrIn$_5$ the KL state density is in excellent agreement with the recent microscopic calculations of hybridization in this material by Shim, Haule, and Kotliar.

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