Quantum-well states at the surface of a heavy-fermion superconductor.

ABSTRACT: Two-dimensional electronic states at surfaces are often observed in simple wide-band metals such as Cu or Ag (refs. ^1-4). Confinement by closed geometries at the nanometre scale, such as surface terraces, leads to quantized energy levels formed from the surface band, in stark contrast to the continuous energy dependence of bulk electron bands^2,5-10. Their energy-level separation is typically hundreds of meV (refs. ^3,6,11). In a distinct class of materials, strong electronic correlations lead to so-called heavy fermions with a strongly reduced bandwidth and exotic bulk ground states^12,13. Quantum-well states in two-dimensional heavy fermions (2DHFs) remain, however, notoriously difficult to observe because of their tiny energy separation. Here we

SUBMITTER: Herrera E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10115632 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature