Emergent Heavy-Fermion Physics in a Family of Topological Insulators RAsS (R = Y, La, and Sm)

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Contributors

  • Iñigo Robredo - , Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (Author)
  • Yuan Fang - , Rice University (Author)
  • Lei Chen - , Rice University, Stony Brook University (Author)
  • Nazar Zaremba - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Yurii Prots - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Mitja Krnel - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Markus König - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Mikel I. Iraola - , Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Thomas Doert - , Chair of Inorganic Chemistry II (Author)
  • Jeroen van den Brink - , Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Claudia Felser - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Qimiao Si - , Rice University (Author)
  • Eteri Svanidze - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Maia G. Vergniory - , Donostia International Physics Center, Université de Sherbrooke, Quebec Network for Advanced Materials (Author)

Abstract

Realizing topological phases in strongly correlated materials has become a major impetus in condensed matter physics. Although many compounds are now classified as topological insulators, f-electron systems provide an especially fertile platform for emergent heavy-fermion phenomena driven by the interplay of topology and many-body effects. In this study, we examine the crystalline topology of a new RAsS series (R = Y, La, Sm), revealing a structural variant from previous reports. We demonstrate that YAsS and SmAsS host hourglass fermions protected by glide symmetry. SmAsS notably exhibits a strong effective-mass enhancement, placing it alongside SmB6 and YbB12 as a material that exemplifies how the Kondo effects pin the correlated f-electron states near the Fermi energy and, consequently, renormalize the energy and mass scales of topological surface states without destroying their crystalline protection. This tunability establishes SmAsS as a bridge between weakly correlated topological materials and Kondo insulators. To capture these features, we construct a minimal model incorporating f-electron degrees of freedom, which reproduces the observed topological properties and predicts that the surface states survive in the correlated regime, albeit shifted in energy. Our work thus introduces a new family of correlated topological materials and forecasts the robustness of their surface states under Kondo correlations.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)12979-12989
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of the American Chemical Society
Volume148
Issue number12
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2026
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 41805358
ORCID /0000-0001-7523-9313/work/223382140