Abstract
Log-periodic quantum oscillations discovered in transition-metal pentatelluride give a clear demonstration of discrete scale invariance (DSI) in solid-state materials. The peculiar phenomenon is convincingly interpreted as the presence of two-body quasi-bound states in a Coulomb potential. However, the modifications of the Coulomb interactions in many-body systems having a Dirac-like spectrum are not fully understood. Here, we report the observation of tunable log-periodic oscillations and DSI in ZrTe5 and HfTe5 flakes. By reducing the flakes thickness, the characteristic scale factor is tuned to a much smaller value due to the reduction of the vacuum polarization effect. The decreasing of the scale factor demonstrates the many-body effect on the DSI, which has rarely been discussed hitherto. Furthermore, the cut-offs of oscillations are quantitatively explained by considering the Thomas-Fermi screening effect. Our work clarifies the many-body effect on DSI and paves a way to tune the DSI in quantum materials.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 88 |
| Journal | npj Quantum Materials |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2020 |
Funding
We thank Liqin Huang, Zihan Yan, Qingzheng Qiu, Haiwen Liu, and Yongjie Liu for discussions on the data. This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFA0305604 and 2017YFA0303302), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11888101, 11774008, 12004441), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (Z180010), and the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB28000000). J.Y. and D. M. were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. H.W. acknowledges the support of the Hundreds of Talents program of Sun Yat-Sen University and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 20lgpy165).