Polarity-driven surface metallicity in SmB$_6$

By a combined angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and density functional theory study, we discover that the surface metallicity is polarity-driven in SmB$_6$. Two surface states, not accounted for by the bulk band structure, are reproduced by slab calculations for coexisting B$_6$ and Sm surface terminations. Our analysis reveals that a metallic surface state stems from an unusual property, generic to the (001) termination of all hexaborides: the presence of boron $2p$ dangling bonds, on a polar surface. The discovery of polarity-driven surface metallicity sheds new light on the 40-year old conundrum of the low-temperature residual conductivity of SmB$_6$, and raises a fundamental question in the field of topological Kondo insulators regarding the interplay between polarity and nontrivial topological properties.

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