The recent conjecture of a topologically protected surface state in SmB6 and the verification of robust surface conduction below 4 K have prompted a large effort to understand surface states. Conventional Hall transport measurements allow current to flow on all surfaces of a topological insulator, so such measurements are influenced by contributions from multiple surfaces of varying transport character. Instead, we study magnetotransport of SmB6 using a Corbino geometry, which can directly measure the conductivity of a single, independent surface. Both (011) and (001) crystal surfaces show a strong negative magnetoresistance at all magnetic field angles measured. The (011) surface has a carrier mobility of 122cm2/V·s with a carrier density of 2.5×1013cm-2, which are significantly lower than indicated by Hall transport studies. This mobility value can explain the failure so far to observe Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations. Analysis of the angle dependence of conductivity on the (011) surface suggests a combination of a field-dependent enhancement of the carrier density and a suppression of Kondo scattering from native oxide layer magnetic moments as the likely origin of the negative magnetoresistance. Our results also reveal a hysteretic behavior whose magnitude depends on the magnetic field sweep rate and temperature. Although this feature becomes smaller when the field sweep is slower, it does not disappear or saturate during our slowest sweep-rate measurements, which is much slower than a typical magnetotransport trace. These observations cannot be explained by quantum interference corrections such as weak antilocalization but are more likely due to an extrinsic magnetic effect such as the magnetocaloric effect or glassy ordering.

In the Kondo insulator samarium hexaboride (SmB6), strong correlation and band hybridization lead to an insulating gap and a diverging resistance at low temperature. The resistance divergence ends at about 3 kelvin, a behavior that may arise from surface conductance. We used torque magnetometry to resolve the Fermi surface topology in this material. The observed oscillation patterns reveal two Fermi surfaces on the (100) surface plane and one Fermi surface on the (101) surface plane. The measured Fermi surface cross sections scale as the inverse cosine function of the magnetic field tilt angles, which demonstrates the two-dimensional nature of the conducting electronic states of SmB6.