Visualizing the formation of the Kondo lattice and the hidden order in URu2Si2 |
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| Authors: | Pegor Aynajian Eduardo H. da Silva Neto Colin V. Parker Yingkai Huang Abhay Pasupathy John Mydosh Ali Yazdani |
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| Affiliation: | aJoseph Henry Laboratories and Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544; ;bvan der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam, 1018XE Amsterdam, The Netherlands; ;cDepartment of Physics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027; and ;dKamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Leiden University, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | Heavy electronic states originating from the f atomic orbitals underlie a rich variety of quantum phases of matter. We use atomic scale imaging and spectroscopy with the scanning tunneling microscope to examine the novel electronic states that emerge from the uranium f states in URu2Si2. We find that, as the temperature is lowered, partial screening of the f electrons’ spins gives rise to a spatially modulated Kondo–Fano resonance that is maximal between the surface U atoms. At T = 17.5 K, URu2Si2 is known to undergo a second-order phase transition from the Kondo lattice state into a phase with a hidden order parameter. From tunneling spectroscopy, we identify a spatially modulated, bias-asymmetric energy gap with a mean-field temperature dependence that develops in the hidden order state. Spectroscopic imaging further reveals a spatial correlation between the hidden order gap and the Kondo resonance, suggesting that the two phenomena involve the same electronic states. |
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| Keywords: | heavy fermion scanning tunneling spectroscopy |
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