Intermediate Valence State in \(\mathrm{YbB_4}\) Revealed by Resonant X-ray Emission Spectroscopy

We report the temperature dependence of the Yb valence in the geometrically frustrated compound \(\mathrm{YbB_4}\) from 12 to 300 K using resonant X-ray emission spectroscopy at the Yb \(L_{\alpha_1}\) transition. We find that the Yb valence, \(v\), is hybridized between the \(v=2\) and \(v=3\) vale...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2022-04
Main Authors: Frontini, Felix, Lebert, Blair W, Cho, K K, Song, M S, Cho, B K, Pollock, Christopher J, Young-June, Kim
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alpha rays
Emission spectroscopy
Kondo temperature
Low temperature
Spectrum analysis
Temperature dependence
Temperature scales
Valence
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We report the temperature dependence of the Yb valence in the geometrically frustrated compound \(\mathrm{YbB_4}\) from 12 to 300 K using resonant X-ray emission spectroscopy at the Yb \(L_{\alpha_1}\) transition. We find that the Yb valence, \(v\), is hybridized between the \(v=2\) and \(v=3\) valence states, increasing from \(v=2.61\pm0.01\) at 12 K to \(v=2.67\pm0.01\) at 300 K, confirming that \(\mathrm{YbB_4}\) is a Kondo system in the intermediate valence regime. This result indicates that the Kondo interaction in \(\mathrm{YbB_4}\) is substantial, and is likely to be the reason why \(\mathrm{YbB_4}\) does not order magnetically at low temperature, rather than this being an effect of geometric frustration. Furthermore, the zero-point valence of the system is extracted from our data and compared with other Kondo lattice systems. The zero-point valence seems to be weakly dependent on the Kondo temperature scale, but not on the valence change temperature scale \(T_v\).
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2204.13748