We report systematic angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) experiments using different photon polarizations and experimental geometries and find that the doping evolution of the normal state of Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 deviates significantly from the predictions of a rigid band model. The data reveal a nonmonotonic dependence upon doping of key quantities such as band filling, bandwidth of the electron pocket, and quasiparticle coherence. Our analysis suggests that the observed phenomenology and the inapplicability of the rigid band model in Co-doped Ba122 are due to electronic correlations, and not to the either the strength of the impurity potential, or self-energy effects due to impurity scattering. Our findings indicate that the effects of doping in pnictides are much more complicated than currently believed. More generally, they indicate that a deep understanding of the evolution of the electronic properties of the normal state, which requires an understanding of the doping process, remains elusive even for the 122 iron-pnictides, which are viewed as the least correlated of the high-TC unconventional superconductors.

We report systematic temperature- and doping-dependent measurements of the Fe3s core-level photoemission spectra in the normal state of superconducting Sr(Fe1-xCox)2As2. The analysis of the Fe3s spectrum provides an element-specific determination of the mean value of the magnitude of the Fe spin moment measured on the fast (10-16-10-15s) timescale of the photoemission process. The data reveal the ubiquitous presence in the normal state of Fe spin moments with magnitude fluctuating on short timescales. The data reveal a significant reduction of the magnitude of the effective Fe spin moment on going from the parent to the optimal doped compound. The doping dependence of the magnitude of the spin moment at higher doping level is less clear, being either constant, or even nonmonotonic, depending on temperature. This phenomenology indicates the importance of the interaction between spin and itinerant degrees of freedom in shaping the properties of the normal state. These findings reaffirm the complexity of the normal state of 122 Fe-pnictides, which are typically viewed as the least correlated of the high-temperature unconventional superconductors.

The fine-tuning of topologically protected states in quantum materials holds great promise for novel electronic devices. However, there are limited methods that allow for the controlled and efficient modulation of the crystal lattice while simultaneously monitoring the changes in the electronic structure within a single sample. Here, we apply significant and controllable strain to high-quality HfTe₅ samples and perform electrical transport measurements to reveal the topological phase transition from a weak topological insulator phase to a strong topological insulator phase. After applying high strain to HfTe₅ and converting it into a strong topological insulator, we found that the resistivity of the sample increased by 190,500% and that the electronic transport was dominated by the topological surface states at cryogenic temperatures. Our results demonstrate the suitability of HfTe₅ as a material for engineering topological properties, with the potential to generalize this approach to study topological phase transitions in van der Waals materials and heterostructures.