Phys.org August 29, 2024
Artificial quantum systems have emerged as platforms to realize topological matter in a well-controlled manner. However, the realization of many-body topological phases in solid-state platforms with atomic resolution has remained challenging. An international team of researchers (USA – Stevens Institute of Technology, China, Finland) engineered both topological and trivial phases of the quantum spin model and realized first- and second-order topological quantum magnets. They probed the many-body excitations of the quantum magnets by single-atom electron spin resonance with an energy resolution better than 100 neV. Using the atomically localized magnetic field of the scanning tunnelling microscope tip, they visualized various many-body topological bound modes including topological edge states, topological defects and higher-order corner modes. According to the researchers their results provide a bottom-up approach for the simulation of exotic quantum many-body phases of interacting spins… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Engineering atom interactions inside an artificial quantum material… Credit: Jose Lado/Aalto University.