Observation of Mott instability at the valence transition of f-electron system

Mott physics plays a critical role in materials with strong electronic correlations. Mott insulator-to-metal transition can be driven by chemical doping, external pressure, temperature and gate voltage, which is often seen in transition metal oxides with 3d electrons near the Fermi energy (e.g. cuprate superconductor). In 4f-electron systems, however, the insulator-to-metal transition is mostly driven by Kondo hybridization and the Mott physics has rarely been explored in experiments. Here, by combining the angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and strongly correlated band structure calculations, we show that an unusual Mott instability exists in YbInCu₄ accompanying its mysterious first-order valence transition. This contrasts with the prevalent Kondo picture and demonstrates that YbInCu₄ is a unique platform to explore the Mott physics in Kondo lattice systems. Our work provides important insight for the understanding and manipulation of correlated quantum phenomena in the f-electron system.