Progress in Physics

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20 December 2020, Volume 41 Issue 6 Previous Issue Next Issue

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The exotic electronic properties of the topological Kondo insulator SmB₆

ZHAO Gan, ZHANG Ming-yuan, WANG Jia-min, ZHANG Wang, MIAO Lin

2021, 41 (6): 231. doi: 10.13725/j.cnki.pip.2021.06.001

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The topological Kondo insulator (TKI) is an intrinsic electronic correlated topological system in which the bulk bandgap is originated from the Kondo correlation. Since the theoretical idea of TKI was proposed in 2010, SmB₆ was predicted to be the first candidate topological Kondo insulator. In the last decade, SmB₆ was investigated extensively by various experimental methods, and the accumulated evidence confirmed that SmB₆ is a topological Kondo insulator. This review article presented some key experimental evidence, including electronic transportation measurements, ARPES study of low-energy band structure, and STM characterization of the surface. We also discussed how these experimental results establish the topological narrative of SmB₆. Meanwhile, some extremely exotic properties like the 3D quantum oscillations and the bulk-surface valence seperation of SmB₆ are exhibited. The related physical origin is still unknown and needs extra efforts to unveil the underlying physics.

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Development of Functional Materials for Photocatalytic Reduction of CO₂

TANG Lan-qin, JIA Yin, ZHU Zhi-shang, WU Cong-ping, ZHOU Yong, ZOU Zhi-gang

2021, 41 (6): 254-263. doi: 10.13725/j.cnki.pip.2021.06.002

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With the increase of CO₂ greenhouse gas emissions, seeking new energy sources to build a low carbon society has become more urgent since the 21st century. The conversion of CO₂ to valuable hydrocarbon fuel driven by solar energy is of great potential and promising to realize the global carbon balance. Exploring semiconductor materials is very important for the photoreduction of CO₂. Therefore, it will be the main research direction to fabricate highly efficient photocatalysis materials. This paper reviews recent research on photocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to the hydrocarbon fuels in our groups, mainly focusing on nanostructure and component regulations of semiconductor catalysts, including TiO₂, V, W, Ge Ga based materials, C₃N₄ based and some other materials, for the photocatalytic reduction of CO₂.