Track synthesis, materials and catalysis as it is published.
Search papers, labs, and topics across Lattice.
The authors map a field-induced crystal-field crossing in cubic Ce$^{3+}$ under a $[001]$ magnetic field coupled to orthogonal $T_{2g}$ shear strains, generating an isolated diabolical point with unit Chern charge. Realizing synthetic topology in localized rare-earth states provides a direct pathway toward non-Abelian geometric phase manipulation via mechanical strain rather than conventional electromagnetic pulses. Calibrated to CeTe parameters, the single-ion crossing emerges near $35.5\text{ T}$ with strain-induced hybridization gaps reaching $0.072\text{ meV}$ at $0.20\%$ shear, establishing explicit adiabatic and coherence bounds for cyclic quantum control.
Mechanical shear strain can directly synthesize an isolated diabolical point with unit Chern charge in cubic Ce$^{3+}$, transforming localized rare-earth crystal-field crossings into a robust platform for strain-driven geometric quantum control.
Field-tuned crystal-field crossings provide a route to synthetic topology in localized rare-earth degrees of freedom when symmetry-resolved perturbations can independently control the crossing states. Here we show that a field-induced crossing in cubic Ce$^{3+}$ has precisely this structure. For $B\parallel[001]$, the crossing is protected by a twofold rotation, while the $T_{2g}$ shears $\epsilon_{xz}$ and $\epsilon_{yz}$ break that protection and mix the two states through orthogonal pseudospin components. Together with magnetic-field detuning, these controls generate an isolated diabolical point with unit-magnitude Chern charge in a three-dimensional parameter space. Using the CeTe crystal-field scale gives an ideal single-ion crossing near $35.5$ T. A calibrated point-charge calculation gives a representative projected shear coupling $|\alpha_{T_{2g}}|\simeq18.1$ meV per unit tensor strain, corresponding to gaps of $0.036$ and $0.072$ meV for tensor shears of $0.10\%$ and $0.20\%$. We identify the associated elastic and magnetic signatures, discuss the limitations of the electrostatic estimate in a hybridizing Ce compound, and determine the adiabatic and coherence requirements for cyclic geometric control. The result is a symmetry-based framework that connects high-field crystal-field reconstruction, strain response, and parameter-space topology in rare-earth systems.