Devil's staircase transition of the electronic structures in CeSb

Area of Science:

• Condensed Matter Physics
• Materials Science
• Quantum Mechanics

Background:

• Solids with competing interactions exhibit complex phase transitions, including the devil's staircase.
• Cerium Antimonide (CeSb) is a well-known material displaying a devil's staircase with numerous long-periodic magnetic structures.
• Understanding the evolution of electronic structures during these transitions is crucial but has remained challenging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the electronic structure evolution during the devil's staircase transitions in CeSb.
• To provide direct experimental evidence of changes in electronic band structures and spectral functions.
• To elucidate the relationship between magnetic ordering and electronic properties.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing bulk-sensitive angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES).
• Analyzing the band dispersions and electronic structures across various magnetic phases.
• Probing the electronic states at the Fermi energy under long-periodic modulations.

Main Results:

• Directly observed the devil's staircase transitions in the electronic structures of CeSb.
• Demonstrated that magnetic reconstructions significantly alter band dispersions at each transition.
• Found that the electronic band picture collapses around the Fermi energy in transitional phases and recovers in the ground state.

Conclusions:

• The study provides the first direct experimental evidence of significant electronic structure reorganization during the devil's staircase.
• Magnetic ordering profoundly impacts the low-energy electronic states in materials with competing interactions.
• The findings offer new insights into the complex interplay between magnetism and electronic properties in CeSb.