Large Fermi Surface of Heavy Electrons at the Border of Mott Insulating State in NiS2

One early triumph of quantum physics is the explanation why some materials are metallic whereas others are insulating. While a treatment based on single electron states is correct for most materials this approach can fail spectacularly, when the electrostatic repulsion between electrons causes stron...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2016-05, Vol.6 (1), p.25335-25335, Article 25335
Main Authors: Friedemann, S., Chang, H., Gamża, M. B., Reiss, P., Chen, X., Alireza, P., Coniglio, W. A., Graf, D., Tozer, S., Grosche, F. M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/766/119/2795
639/766/119/995
approximation
CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
crystals
Humanities and Social Sciences
infinite dimensions
magnetic-properties
MATERIALS SCIENCE
metal transition
multidisciplinary
nis2-xsex
pressure
pyrite-structure
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
superconductor
system
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Summary:One early triumph of quantum physics is the explanation why some materials are metallic whereas others are insulating. While a treatment based on single electron states is correct for most materials this approach can fail spectacularly, when the electrostatic repulsion between electrons causes strong correlations. Not only can these favor new and subtle forms of matter, such as magnetism or superconductivity, they can even cause the electrons in a half-filled energy band to lock into position, producing a correlated, or Mott insulator. The transition into the Mott insulating state raises important fundamental questions. Foremost among these is the fate of the electronic Fermi surface and the associated charge carrier mass, as the Mott transition is approached. We report the first direct observation of the Fermi surface on the metallic side of a Mott insulating transition by high pressure quantum oscillatory measurements in NiS 2 . Our results point at a large Fermi surface consistent with Luttinger’s theorem and a strongly enhanced quasiparticle effective mass. These two findings are in line with central tenets of the Brinkman-Rice picture of the correlated metal near the Mott insulating state and rule out alternative scenarios in which the carrier concentration vanishes continuously at the metal-insulator transition.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep25335