Person:

Fang, Shiang

We use scanning tunneling spectroscopy to investigate the filled and empty electronic states of superconducting single-unit-cell FeSe deposited on SrTiO3(001). We map the momentum-space band structure by combining quasiparticle interference imaging with decay length spectroscopy. In addition to quantifying the filled-state bands, we discover a Γ-centered electron pocket 75 meV above the Fermi energy. Our density functional theory calculations show the orbital nature of empty states at Γ and explain how the Se height is a key tuning parameter of their energies, with broad implications for electronic properties.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials offer a promising platform for exploring condensed matter phenomena and developing technological applications. However, the reduction of material dimensions to the atomic scale poses a challenge for traditional measurement and interfacing techniques that typically couple to macroscopic observables. We demonstrate a method for probing the properties of 2D materials via nanometer-scale nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) spectroscopy using individual atom-like impurities in diamond. Coherent manipulation of shallow nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers enables the probing of nanoscale ensembles down to ∼30 nuclear spins in atomically thin hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). The characterization of low-dimensional nanoscale materials could enable the development of new quantum hybrid systems, combining atom-like systems coherently coupled with individual atoms in 2D materials.

We present an accurate ab initio tight-binding Hamiltonian for the transition metal dichalcogenides, MoS2, MoSe2, WS2, WSe2, with a minimal basis (the d orbitals for the metal atoms and p orbitals for the chalcogen atoms) based on a transformation of the Kohn-Sham density functional theory Hamiltonian to a basis of maximally localized Wannier functions. The truncated tight-binding Hamiltonian, with only on-site, first, and partial second neighbor interactions, including spin-orbit coupling, provides a simple physical picture and the symmetry of the main band-structure features. Interlayer interactions between adjacent layers are modeled by transferable hopping terms between the chalcogen p orbitals. The full-range tight-binding Hamiltonian can be reduced to hybrid-orbital k .p effective Hamiltonians near the band extrema that capture important low-energy excitations. These ab initio Hamiltonians can serve as the starting point for applications to interacting many-body physics including optical transitions and Berry curvature of bands, of which we give some examples.

We use scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and quasiparticle interference (QPI) imaging to investigate the low-energy orbital texture of single-layer FeSe/SrTiO3. We develop a T -matrix model of multiorbital QPI to disentangle scattering intensities from Fe 3dxz and 3dyz bands, enabling the use of STM as a nanoscale detection tool of nematicity. By sampling multiple spatial regions of a single-layer FeSe/SrTiO3 film, we quantitatively exclude static xz/yz orbital ordering with domain size larger than δr2 = 20 nm × 20 nm, xz/yz Fermi wave vector difference larger than δk = 0.014 π, and energy splitting larger than δE = 3.5 meV. The lack of detectable ordering pinned around defects places qualitative constraints on models of fluctuating nematicity

Raman scattering plays a key role in unraveling the quantum dynamics of graphene, perhaps the most promising material of recent times. It is crucial to correctly interpret the meaning of the spectra. It is therefore very surprising that the widely accepted understanding of Raman scattering, i.e., Kramers–Heisenberg–Dirac theory, has never been applied to graphene. Doing so here, a remarkable mechanism we term“transition sliding” is uncovered, explaining the uncommon brightness of overtones in graphene. Graphene’s dispersive and fixed Raman bands, missing bands, defect density and laser frequency dependence of band intensities, widths of overtone bands, Stokes, anti-Stokes anomalies, and other known properties emerge simply and directly.

A kagome lattice of 3d transition metal ions is a versatile platform for correlated topological phases hosting symmetry-protected electronic excitations and magnetic ground states. However, the paradigmatic states of the idealized two-dimensional kagome lattice – Dirac fermions and flat bands – have not been simultaneously observed. Here, we utilize angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and de Haas-van Alphen quantum oscillations to reveal coexisting surface and bulk Dirac fermions as well as flat bands in the antiferromagnetic kagome metal FeSn, that has spatially-decoupled kagome planes. Our band structure calculations and matrix element simulations demonstrate that the bulk Dirac bands arise from in-plane localized Fe-3d orbitals, and evidence that coexisting Dirac surface state realizes a rare example of fully spin-polarized two-dimensional Dirac fermions due to spin-layer locking in FeSn. The prospect to harness these prototypical excitations in kagome lattice is a frontier of great promise at the confluence of topology, magnetism, and strongly-correlated physics.

The single-particle and many-body properties of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) can be dramatically 1 different from those of a single graphene layer, in particular when the two layers are rotated relative 2 to each other by a small angle ��≈��∘1–6. Here, we probe for the first time collective excitations of TBG 3 graphene with 20 nanometer spatial resolution, by applying mid-infrared (MIR) near-field optical 4 microscopy. We unveil a propagating plasmon mode in charge-neutral TBG with ��=��.��−��.��∘, which 5 is dramatically different from the ordinary single-layer graphene intraband plasmon7,8. We interpret it 6 as an interband plasmon associated with the optical transitions between minibands originating from 7 the moiré superlattice9,10. The details of the plasmon dispersion are directly related to the motion of 8 electrons in the moiré superlattice and offer invaluable insight into a plethora of physical properties, 9 such as the band nesting between flat band and remote band10, local interlayer coupling, losses etc. We 10 find a strongly reduced interlayer coupling in the regions with AA-stacking, pointing at screening due 11 to electron-electron (e-e) interactions. Optical nano-imaging studies of TBG pave the way to spatially 12 probe interactions effects at the nanoscale11, it could potentially elucidate the contribution of collective excitations to many-body ground states12, and it unveils itself as a new platform for strong light-matter 14 interactions and quantum plasmonic studies and devices13.

Following the recent isolation of monolayer CrI3 [1], there has been a surge of new two-dimensional van der Waals magnetic materials [2-12], whose incorporation in van der Waals heterostructures offers a new platform for spintronics [5-9], proximity magnetism [13], and quantum spin liquids [14]. A primary question in this burgeoning field is how exfoliating crystals to the few-layer limit influences their magnetism. Studies on CrI3 have shown a different magnetic ground state for ultrathin exfoliated films [1,5,6] but the origin is not yet understood. Here, we use electron tunneling through few-layer crystals of the layered antiferromagnetic insulator CrCl3 to probe its magnetic order, finding a ten-fold enhancement in the interlayer exchange compared to bulk crystals. Moreover, temperature- and polarization-dependent Raman spectroscopy reveal that the crystallographic phase transition of bulk crystals does not occur in exfoliated films. This results in a different low temperature stacking order and, we hypothesize, increased interlayer exchange. Our study provides new insight into the connection between stacking order and interlayer interactions in novel two-dimensional magnets, which may be relevant for correlating stacking faults and mechanical deformations with the magnetic ground states of other more exotic layered magnets, such as RuCl3 [14].