Unraveling the origin of Kondo-like behavior in the 3$d$-electron heavy-fermion compound YFe$_{2}$Ge$_{2}$

TL;DR

This study investigates the heavy fermion behavior in YFe₂Ge₂, revealing Kondo-like features through spectroscopy and calculations, but shows the underlying mechanism differs from traditional Kondo physics, involving band flatness and hybridization.

Contribution

It demonstrates that YFe₂Ge₂ exhibits heavy fermion characteristics similar to f-electron systems, but with a distinct mechanism rooted in band structure effects rather than Kondo interactions.

Findings

Infrared spectroscopy reveals heavy fermion signatures and a hybridization gap.

Band structure calculations suggest a mechanism based on band flatness and hybridization.

A crossover from coherent to incoherent behavior occurs around 100 K.

Abstract

The heavy fermion (HF) state of $d$-electron systems is of great current interest since it exhibits various exotic phases and phenomena that are reminiscent of the Kondo effect in $f$-electron HF systems. Here, we present a combined infrared spectroscopy and first-principles band structure calculation study of the $3d$-electron HF compound YFe$_2$Ge$_2$. The infrared response exhibits several charge-dynamical hallmarks of HF and a corresponding scaling behavior that resemble those of the $f$-electron HF systems. In particular, the low-temperature spectra reveal a dramatic narrowing of the Drude response along with the appearance of a hybridization gap ($\Delta \sim$ 50 meV) and a strongly enhanced quasiparticle effective mass. Moreover, the temperature dependence of the infrared response indicates a crossover around $T^{\ast} \sim$ 100 K from a coherent state at low temperature to a quasi-incoherent one at high temperature. Despite of these striking similarities, our band structure calculations suggest that the mechanism underlying the HF behavior in YFe$_2$Ge$_2$ is distinct from the Kondo scenario of the $f$-electron HF compounds and even from that of the $d$-electron iron-arsenide superconductor KFe$_2$As$_2$. For the latter, the HF state is driven by orbital-selective correlations due to a strong Hund's coupling. Instead, for YFe$_2$Ge$_2$ the HF behavior originates from the band flatness near the Fermi level induced by the combined effects of kinetic frustration from a destructive interference between the direct Fe-Fe and indirect Fe-Ge-Fe hoppings, band hybridization involving Fe $3d$ and Y $4d$ electrons, and electron correlations. This highlights that rather different mechanisms can be at the heart of the HF state in $d$-electron systems.