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Register a new userPressure effect and Superconductivity in $beta$-Bi$_4$I$_4$ Topological Insulator
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We report a detailed study of the transport coefficients of $beta$-Bi$_4$I$_4$ quasi-one dimensional topological insulator. Electrical resistivity, thermoelectric power, thermal conductivity and Hall coefficient measurements are consistent with the possible appearance of a charge density wave order at low temperatures. Both electrons and holes contribute to the conduction in $beta$-Bi$_4$I$_4$ and the dominant type of charge carrier changes with temperature as a consequence of temperature-dependent carrier densities and mobilities. Measurements of resistivity and Seebeck coefficient under hydrostatic pressure up to 2 GPa show a shift of the charge density wave order to higher temperatures suggesting a strongly one-dimensional character at ambient pressure. Surprisingly, superconductivity is induced in $beta$-Bi$_4$I$_4$ above 10 GPa with of 4.0 K which is slightly decreasing upon increasing the pressure up to 20 GPa. Chemical characterisation of the pressure-treated samples shows amorphization of $beta$-Bi$_4$I$_4$ under pressure and rules out decomposition into Bi and BiI$_3$ at room-temperature conditions.
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Recent progress in the field of topological states of matter(1,2) has largely been initiated by the discovery of bismuth and antimony chalcogenide bulk topological insulators (TIs)(3-6), followed by closely related ternary compounds(7-16) and predictions of several weak TIs(17-19). However, both the conceptual richness of Z$_2$ classification of TIs as well as their structural and compositional diversity are far from being fully exploited. Here, a new Z$_2$ topological insulator is theoretically predicted and experimentally confirmed in the $beta$-phase of quasi-one-dimensional bismuth iodide Bi$_4$I$_4$. The electronic structure of $beta$-Bi$_4$I$_4$, characterized by Z$_2$ invariants (1;110), is in proximity of both the weak TI phase (0;001) and the trivial insulator phase (0;000). Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements on the (001) surface reveal a highly anisotropic band-crossing feature located at the point of the surface Brillouin zone and showing no dispersion with the photon energy, thus being fully consistent with the theoretical prediction.
We report the results of high pressure x-ray diffraction, x-ray absorption, and electrical transport measurements of Kondo insulator Ce$_3$Bi$_4$Pt$_3$ up to 42 GPa, the highest pressure reached in the study of any Ce-based KI. We observe a smooth decrease in volume and movement toward intermediate Ce valence with pressure, both of which point to increased electron correlations. Despite this, temperature-dependent resistance data show the suppression of the interaction-driven ambient pressure insulating ground state. We also discuss potential ramifications of these results for the predicted topological KI state.
Quasi-one-dimensional (1D) materials provide a superior platform for characterizing and tuning topological phases for two reasons: i) existence for multiple cleavable surfaces that enables better experimental identification of topological classification, and ii) stronger response to perturbations such as strain for tuning topological phases compared to higher dimensional crystal structures. In this paper, we present experimental evidence for a room-temperature topological phase transition in the quasi-1D material Bi$_4$I$_4$, mediated via a first order structural transition between two distinct stacking orders of the weakly-coupled chains. Using high resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on the two natural cleavable surfaces, we identify the high temperature $beta$ phase to be the first weak topological insulator with gapless Dirac cones on the (100) surface and no Dirac crossing on the (001) surface, while in the low temperature $alpha$ phase, the topological surface state on the (100) surface opens a gap, consistent with a recent theoretical prediction of a higher-order topological insulator beyond the scope of the established topological materials databases that hosts gapless hinge states. Our results not only identify a rare topological phase transition between first-order and second-order topological insulators but also establish a novel quasi-1D material platform for exploring unprecedented physics.
We study single crystals of the magnetic superconductor EuRbFe$_4$As$_4$ by magnetization, electron spin resonance (ESR), angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and electrical resistance in pulsed magnetic fields up to 630 kOe. The superconducting state below 36.5 K is almost isotropic and only weakly affected by the development of Eu$^{2+}$ magnetic order at 15 K. On the other hand, for the external magnetic field applied along the c-axis the temperature dependence of the ESR linewidth reveals a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless topological transition below 15 K. This indicates that Eu$^{2+}$-planes are a good realization of a two-dimensional XY-magnet, which reflects the decoupling of the Eu$^{2+}$ magnetic moments from superconducting FeAs-layers.
We present a detailed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) study of ${}^{239}$Pu in bulk and powdered single-crystal plutonium tetraboride (PuB$_4$), which has recently been investigated as a potential correlated topological insulator. This study constitutes the second-ever observation of the ${}^{239}$Pu NMR signal, and provides unique on-site sensitivity to the rich $f$-electron physics and insight into the bulk gap-like behavior in PuB$_4$. The ${}^{239}$Pu NMR spectra are consistent with axial symmetry of the shift tensor showing for the first time that ${}^{239}$Pu NMR can be observed in an anisotropic environment and up to room temperature. The temperature dependence of the ${}^{239}$Pu shift, combined with a relatively long spin-lattice relaxation time ($T_1$), indicate that PuB$_4$ adopts a non-magnetic state with gap-like behavior consistent with our density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The temperature dependencies of the NMR Knight shift and $T_1^{-1}$--microscopic quantities sensitive only to bulk states--imply bulk gap-like behavior confirming that PuB$_4$ is a good candidate topological insulator. The large contrast between the ${}^{239}$Pu orbital shifts in the ionic insulator PuO$_2$ ($sim$~+24.7~%) and PuB$_4$ ($sim$~-0.5~%) provides a new tool to investigate the nature of chemical bonding in plutonium materials.
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