Topological surface states in the Kondo insulator YbB$_{12}$ revealed via planar tunneling spectroscopy

TL;DR

This study uses planar tunneling spectroscopy to investigate topological surface states in YbB$_{12}$, revealing evidence of Dirac fermions and band hybridization, and compares findings with the known topological Kondo insulator SmB$_6$.

Contribution

It provides experimental tunneling spectra of YbB$_{12}$, supporting the existence of topological surface states predicted by band calculations, and highlights differences from SmB$_6$.

Findings

Evidence of surface Dirac fermions in YbB$_{12}$

Observation of hybridized band edges consistent with calculations

Discrepancies suggesting different topological surface state nature

Abstract

Planar tunneling spectroscopy of the Kondo insulator SmB$_6$ suggests that an interaction between the surface Dirac fermions and the bulk spin excitons results in incompletely protected topological surface states. To gain further insight into their true nature, it is necessary to study other topological Kondo insulator candidates. Calculations of electronic energy bands predict that the Kondo insulator YbB$_{12}$ hosts topological surface states protected by crystalline mirror symmetry. In this study, we present tunneling conductance spectra obtained from the (001) surface of YbB$_{12}$ single crystals and discuss them in comparison to SmB$_6$. The linear conductance at low bias provides strong evidence for the existence of surface Dirac fermions. The double-hump structure in the negative bias region is associated with hybridized band edges, in agreement with a calculated band structure. While these similarities with SmB6 are suggestive of the existence of topological surface states in YbB$_{12}$, in agreement with other experiments, some discrepancies are also observed, which we attribute to a difference in their exact nature from those in SmB$_6$.