Quantum Confined Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquid in Mo₆Se₆ Nanowires Converted from an Epitaxial MoSe₂ Monolayer.

Abstract

Confining interacting particles in one-dimension (1D) changes the electronic behavior of the system fundamentally, which has been studied extensively in the past. Examples of 1D metallic systems include carbon nanotubes, quasi-1D organic conductors, metal chains, and domain boundary defects in monolayer thick transition-metal dichalcogenides such as MoSe₂. Here single and bundles of Mo₆Se₆ nanowires were fabricated through annealing a MoSe₂ monolayer grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on graphene. Conversion from two-dimensional (2D) MoSe₂ film to 1D Mo₆Se₆ nanowire is reversible. Mo₆Se₆ nanowires form preferentially at the Se-terminated zigzag edges of MoSe₂ and stitch to it via two distinct atomic configurations. The Mo₆Se₆ wire is metallic and its length is tunable, which represents one of few 1D systems that exhibit properties pertinent to quantum confined Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid, as evidenced by scanning tunneling microscopic and spectroscopic studies.