Heavy fermion thin films: progress and prospects

Abstract

Abstract Heavy fermion compounds are a remarkable class of inter-metallic systems, where the presence of several competing interactions leads to the emergence of a plethora of exotic properties. Although these compounds have been extensively studied in the last few decades, their epitaxial synthesis in a thin film form has remained poorly explored. The ability to create these materials in a bottoms-up manner opens up the possibility of both controlling and engineering their properties at the atomic scale, and allows fabrication of artificial heterostructures and superlattices that have no bulk analogues. Furthermore, experimental probes, which are compatible with a thin film geometry but are difficult to make use of with bulk single crystals, can be utilized to gain new insights into their electronic structure. Motivated by the recent advances in thin film technology, this review aims to explore the challenges in thin film growth of heavy fermion systems, presents an overview of the recent progress, and outlines unique opportunities that exist, which are of fundamental scientific importance and could be harnessed for potential technological applications.