Kondo driven suppression of charge density wave in Van der Waals material UTe$_3$

TL;DR

This study shows that in the van der Waals material UTe$_3$, Kondo hybridization suppresses charge density wave formation by reconstructing the electronic structure, highlighting a new way to control electronic orderings in 2D materials.

Contribution

It demonstrates how Kondo hybridization can prevent charge density wave formation in a low-dimensional correlated material, providing insight into competing electronic instabilities.

Findings

Fermi surface nesting similar to RETe$_3$ compounds

Absence of CDW despite nesting conditions

Kondo hybridization reconstructs electronic structure and suppresses CDW

Abstract

Competing electronic instabilities lie at the heart of emergent phenomena in quantum materials. In low-dimensional metals, Fermi-surface nesting can drive charge density wave (CDW) formation through a Peierls-like mechanism, while in strongly correlated systems, Kondo hybridization reconstructs the electronic structure by entangling localized moments with itinerant electrons. How these two fundamentally different instabilities interact$-$whether they coexist, compete, or mutually exclude each other$-$remains an open question. Here, we present suppression of charge density wave via the Kondo interaction in van der Waals material UTe$_3$. The angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) data reveals Fermi surface nesting under similar conditions as seen in RETe$_3$ compounds. Despite that, no CDW is found in UTe$_3$ after an extensive search. We demonstrate that strong hybridization between U 5$f$ electrons and Te $p$ states reconstructs the low-energy electronic structure, removes the instability, and preempts CDW formation. Our results reveal a rare example where Kondo hybridization preempts density wave formation, offering a new route to controlling ordering phenomena in correlated 2D materials.