Phys.org November 29, 2022
A team of researchers in the US (Argonne National Laboratory, Old Dominion University) synthesized artificial graphene nanoribbons by positioning carbon monoxide molecules on a copper surface to confine its surface state electrons into artificial atoms positioned to emulate the low-energy electronic structure of graphene derivatives. They showed that the dimensionality of artificial graphene can be reduced to one dimension with proper “edge” passivation, with the emergence of an effectively gapped one-dimensional nanoribbon structure which showed evidence of topological effects analogous to graphene nanoribbons. They spatially explored robust, zero-dimensional topological states by altering the topological invariants of quasi-one-dimensional artificial graphene nanostructures. The robustness and flexibility of their platform allowed them to toggle the topological invariants between trivial and nontrivial on the same nanostructure. They spatially manipulated the states to understand fundamental coupling between adjacent topological states that were finely engineered and simulated complex Hamiltonians…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Graphical abstract. Credit: ACS Nano 2022, 16, 10, 16085–16090, August 15, 2022