Investigation of edge states in artificial graphene nano-flakes. (5th May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Qiushi; Wu, Tsz Chun; Kuang, Guowen; Xie, A'yu; Lin, Nian
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 33:Number 22(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-05-05
• Subjects: artificial graphene nano-flakes -- scanning tunneling microscopy -- molecular designer -- single molecule manipulation -- metallic edge states -- two-dimensional electron gas -- massless Dirac fermions; Condensed matter -- Periodicals; Matière condensée -- Périodiques; Vaste stoffen; Vloeistoffen; Natuurkunde; Electronic journals; Computer network resources; 530.4105
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/abe819
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0953-8984

Abstract

Abstract: Graphene nano-flakes (GNFs) are predicted to host spin-polarized metallic edge states, which are envisioned for exploration of spintronics at the nanometer scale. To date, experimental realization of GNFs is only in its infancy because of the limitation of precise cutting or synthesizing methods at the nanometer scale. Here, we use low temperature scanning tunneling microscope to manipulate coronene molecules on a Cu(111) surface to build artificial triangular and hexagonal GNFs with either zigzag or armchair type of edges. We observe that an electronic state at the Dirac point emerges only in the GNFs with zigzag edges and localizes at the outmost lattice sites. The experimental results agree well with the tight-binding calculations. Our work renders an experimental confirmation of the predicated edge states of the GNFs.