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Many-body electronic structure in the pyrochlore superconductor and spin-liquid candidate
Phys. Rev. B 112, 245131 – Published 12 December, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/6jq5-fgxl
Abstract
The pyrochlore lattice materials can exhibit geometrical frustration, while the related many-body electronic states remain elusive. In this work, we performed scanning tunneling microscopy measurements on the pyrochlore superconductor and spin liquid at 0.3 K. For the first time, we obtained atomically resolved images of their (111) surfaces, revealing a hexagonal lattice or a kagome lattice. Tunneling spectroscopy in reveals a nearly fully opened superconductivity gap. The ratio of suggests relatively strong coupling superconductivity, as compared with that in kagome superconductors . In contrast to the previous study categorizing as a type-I superconductor, the applied magnetic field induces a hexagonal vortex lattice in which each vortex core exhibits an intriguing threefold symmetry state. In , we observed a spatially homogeneous Kondo-lattice resonance, which is compared with that in the kagome Kondo-lattice material . We further discover that the Kondo resonance exhibits a spatial modulation with threefold symmetry, and the applied magnetic field induces a Zeeman splitting of the Kondo resonance with intriguing atomic site dependence. We discuss the relations of these many-body electronic phenomena with the pyrochlore lattice geometry and its charge or spin frustration. Our systematic observations offer atomic-scale insights into the many-body electronic structures of the geometrically frustrated pyrochlore superconductors and spin liquids.