Quantum oscillations in an impurity-band Anderson insulator

Abstract

We show that for a system of localized electrons in an impurity band, which form an Anderson insulating state at zero temperature, there can appear quantum oscillations of the magnetization, i.e. the Anderson insulator can exhibit the de Haas-van Alphen effect. This is possible when the electronic band from which the localized states are formed has an extremum that traces out a nonzero area in reciprocal space. Our work extends existing theories for clean band insulators of this form to the situation where they host an impurity band. We show that the energies of these impurity levels oscillate with magnetic field, and compute the conditions under which these oscillations can dominate the de Haas-van Alphen effect. We discuss our results in connection with experimental measurements of quantum oscillations in Kondo insulators, and propose other experimental systems where the impurity band contribution can be dominant.