Solid state chemistry perspective for strongly correlated topological materials

Materials combining strongly localized magnetic moments and itinerant electrons can host competition between the RKKY interaction, which favors magnetically ordered ground states, and the Kondo interaction, which favors non-magnetic heavy Fermi liquid ground states. This competition gives rise to rich electronic and magnetic phase diagrams that are highly sensitive to chemical modification, structural distortions, and magnetic frustration. Dimensional reduction, in particular, has proven to be an effective strategy to access the quantum critical regime at the crossover between magnetic and non-magnetic states in these materials, motivating the study of 2D or quasi-2D materials hosting these interactions. To this end, I will discuss a chemical strategy to systematically reduce the dimensionality of 3D intermetallic materials through incorporation of halide ions to generate an extended family of effectively 2D intermetallic materials. In particular, I will highlight the design and realization of the van der Waals heavy fermion compound CeSiI, and the chemistry-guided search of new physics in structurally related materials.