Cooperative Jahn-Teller dynamics of boron clusters in the infrared conductivity of heavy fermion metal CeB6 and unconventional superconductor ZrB12

TL;DR

This study investigates the infrared conductivity of CeB6 and ZrB12, revealing cooperative Jahn-Teller dynamics in boron complexes and their influence on charge transport and collective modes.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the role of Jahn-Teller dynamics and collective excitations in the optical properties of heavy fermion and superconducting boron compounds.

Findings

Jahn-Teller dynamics dominate charge transport in both materials.

Fraction of Drude electrons is less than 40%.

Additional Drude component in ZrB12 linked to charge density wave.

Abstract

A thorough study of the wide-range (40-35000 cm-1) dynamic conductivity and permittivity spectra of the archetypal heavy fermion metal CeB6 and unconventional superconductor ZrB12 was carried out at room temperature. Both the Drude-type components and overdamped excitations were separated and analyzed. An additional absorption band observed above 200 cm-1 was attributed to the cooperative Jahn-Teller dynamics of the boron complexes in CeB6 and ZrB12. It was shown that nonequilibrium electrons participating in the formation of the collective JT modes dominate in charge transport, and fraction of Drude-type electrons does not exceed 37% in CeB6 and 23% in ZrB12. We discuss also the additional Drude-type component in ZrB12 in terms of far-infrared conductivity from the sliding charge density wave, and suggest the localized mode scenario reconciles the strong difference between the number of conduction electrons obtained from the Hall effect and optical sum rule analysis in CeB6.