Artificial relativistic molecules.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32041955.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-14635-z and PMC identifier 7010783.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
We fabricate artificial molecules composed of heavy atom lead on a van der Waals crystal. Pb atoms templated on a honeycomb charge-order superstructure of IrTe<sub>2</sub> form clusters ranging from dimers to heptamers including benzene-shaped ring hexamers. Tunneling spectroscopy and electronic structure calculations reveal the formation of unusual relativistic molecular orbitals within the clusters. The spin-orbit coupling is essential both in forming such Dirac electronic states and stabilizing the artificial molecules by reducing the adatom-substrate interaction. Lead atoms are found to be ideally suited for a maximized relativistic effect. This work initiates the use of novel two-dimensional orderings to guide the fabrication of artificial molecules of unprecedented properties.