### Condensed Matter Physics Seminar

Tuesday, October 15, 2019
2:00pm – 3:00pm

Storrs Campus
GS-119

Dr. Jian-Xin Zhu, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Electronic Structure and Topology in f-Electron Quantum Matter

In recent years there has been a surge of interest in quantum materials with topologically protected properties, which are robust against disorder effects. Interesting examples are topological insulators and three-dimensional Weyl metals. Electronic structure has played an important role in the exotic properties of these materials. In this talk, I will present our recent theoretical study of electronic structure and its topology in f-electron PuB$${}_4$$ [1] and Ce$${}_3$$(Pt,Pd)$${}_3$$Bi$${}_4$$ [2] compounds. In addition to uncovering topologically nontrivial electronic states, the role of f-electron and in particular the electronic correlation effects are discussed in the framework of density functional theory and its combination with the dynamical mean-field theory.

[1] H. Choi, W. Zhu, S.K. Cary, L.E. Winter, Z. Huang, R.D. McDonald, V. Mocko, B.L. Scott, P.H. Tobash, J.D. Thompson, S.A. Kozimor, E.D. Bauer, J.-X. Zhu, and F. Ronning, “Experimental and theoretical study of topology and electronic correlations in PuB$${}_4$$”, Phys. Rev. B 97, 201114(R) (2018).

[2] C. Cao, G.-X. Zhi, and J.-X. Zhu, “From Trivial Kondo Insulator Ce$${}_3$$Pt$${}_3$$Bi$${}_4$$ to Topological Nodal-line Semimetal Ce$${}_3$$Pd$${}_3$$Bi$${}_4$$”, arXiv:1904.00675.

Contact:

Prof. A. Balatsky

Physics Department (primary), College of Liberal Arts and Sciences