p Orbital Flat Band and Dirac Cone in the Electronic Honeycomb Lattice.

Gardenier, Thomas S; van den Broeke, Jette J; Moes, Jesper R; Swart, Ingmar; Delerue, Christophe; Slot, Marlou R; Smith, C Morais; Vanmaekelbergh, Daniel · ACS Nano · 2020

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Theory anticipates that the in-plane p<sub><i>x</i></sub>, p<sub><i>y</i></sub> orbitals in a honeycomb lattice lead to potentially useful quantum electronic phases. So far, p orbital bands were only realized for cold atoms in optical lattices and for light and exciton-polaritons in photonic crystals. For electrons, in-plane p orbital physics is difficult to access since natural electronic honeycomb lattices, such as graphene and silicene, show strong s-p hybridization. Here, we report on electronic honeycomb lattices prepared on a Cu(111) surface in a scanning tunneling microscope that, by design, show (nearly) pure orbital bands, including the p orbital flat band and Dirac cone.