Pu nuclear magnetic resonance in the candidate topological insulator PuB

Dioguardi, A. P.*; Yasuoka, Hiroshi*; Thomas, S. M.*; Sakai, Hironori   ; Cary, S. K.*; Kozimor, S. A.*; Albrecht-Schmitt, T. E.*; Choi, H. C.*; Zhu, J.-X.*; Thompson, J. D.*; Bauer, E. D.*; Ronning, F.*

We present a detailed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) study of Pu in bulk and powdered single-crystal plutonium tetraboride (PuB), which has recently been investigated as a potential correlated topological insulator. The Pu NMR spectra are consistent with axial symmetry of the shift tensor showing for the first time that Pu NMR can be observed in an anisotropic environment and up to room temperature. The temperature dependence of the Pu shift, combined with a relatively long spin-lattice relaxation time (), indicate that PuB adopts a nonmagnetic state with gaplike behavior consistent with our density functional theory calculations. The temperature dependencies of the NMR Knight shift and imply bulk gaplike behavior confirming that PuB is a good candidate topological insulator.