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Published on: March 30, 2017
Temperature-driven 5flocalized-itinerant crossover and Dirac fermions in PuCoGa5
1Institute of Materials, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Huafengxincun No. 9, Mianyang 621907, Sichuan, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
PuCoGa5has attracted significant attention due to its record-breaking superconducting transition temperatureTc(≈ 18.5 K) among knownfelectron superconductors. We present a comprehensive investigation of the temperature-driven evolution of the electronic structure in the heavy-fermion superconductor PuCoGa5using dynamical mean-field theory combined with density functional theory (DFT). Our calculations reproduce key features of experimental photoemission spectroscopy and reveal a pronounced crossover of Pu-5felectrons from localized states at high temperatures to itinerant, coherent heavy quasiparticles at low temperatures. This crossover is unequivocally evidenced by the emergence of a sharp Kondo resonance peak near the Fermi level, a large Fermi surface expansion, and a coherence temperature of 580 K extracted from the electron self-energy functions. Furthermore, we identify a symmetry-protected, fourfold degenerate Dirac node, originating from thes-pzorbital crossing of Ga electrons. Notably, this Dirac fermion remains robust against strong correlations and temperature-dependent energy shifts, coexisting with the emergent coherent 5fstates. Our work underscores PuCoGa5as a unique platform where intertwined topology, strong correlations, and valence fluctuations lead to rich quantum phenomena.
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