Tetragonal Kondo Insulator EuCd2Sb2 Discovered Via High Pressure High Temperature Synthesis

Magnetic and electronic properties of quantum materials heavily rely on the crystal structure even in the same chemical compositions. In this study, it is demonstrated that a layered tetragonal EuCd2Sb2 structure can be obtained by treating bulk trigonal EuCd2Sb2 under high pressure (6 GPa) and high temperature (600 °C). Magnetization measurements of the newly formed layered tetragonal EuCd2Sb2 confirm an antiferromagnetic ordering with Neel temperature (TN) around 16 K, which is significantly higher than that (TN ≈ 7 K) of trigonal EuCd2Sb2, consistent with heat capacity measurements. Moreover, bad metal behavior is observed in the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity and the resistivity shows a dramatic increase around the Neel temperature. Electronic structure calculations with local density approximation dynamic mean–field theory (LDA+DMFT) show that this material is strongly correlated with well‐formed large magnetic moments, due to Hund's coupling, which is known to dramatically suppress the Kondo scale.