- Titel
- Observation of fractional edge excitations in nanographene spin chains
- Zitierfähige Url:
- https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa2-943689
- Quellenangabe
- Nature
Erscheinungsjahr: 2021
Jahrgang: 598
Seiten: 287-292
E-ISSN: 1476-4687 - Erstveröffentlichung
- 2021
- Abstract (EN)
- Fractionalization is a phenomenon in which strong interactions in a quantum system drive the emergence of excitations with quantum numbers that are absent in the building blocks. Outstanding examples are excitations with charge e/3 in the fractional quantum Hall effect1,2, solitons in one-dimensional conducting polymers3,4 and Majorana states in topological superconductors5. Fractionalization is also predicted to manifest itself in low-dimensional quantum magnets, such as one-dimensional antiferromagnetic S = 1 chains. The fundamental features of this system are gapped excitations in the bulk6 and, remarkably, S = 1/2 edge states at the chain termini7,8,9, leading to a four-fold degenerate ground state that reflects the underlying symmetry-protected topological order10,11. Here, we use on-surface synthesis12 to fabricate one-dimensional spin chains that contain the S = 1 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon triangulene as the building block. Using scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy at 4.5 K, we probe length-dependent magnetic excitations at the atomic scale in both open-ended and cyclic spin chains, and directly observe gapped spin excitations and fractional edge states therein. Exact diagonalization calculations provide conclusive evidence that the spin chains are described by the S = 1 bilinear-biquadratic Hamiltonian in the Haldane symmetry-protected topological phase. Our results open a bottom-up approach to study strongly correlated phases in purely organic materials, with the potential for the realization of measurement-based quantum computation13.
- Andere Ausgabe
- Link zum Artikel, der zuerst in der Zeitschrift „Nature” im Springer Verlag erschienen ist.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03842-3 - Freie Schlagwörter (EN)
- Magnetic properties and materials, Scanning probe microscopy, Synthesis and processing, Surfaces, interfaces and thin films
- Klassifikation (DDC)
- 500
- Verlag
- Springer, London [u.a.]
- Förder- / Projektangaben
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
On-surface synthesis of low-dimensional nanomaterials
(OSSY)
ID: 200020-182015 - Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
Spin physics of zigzag graphene nanostructures
ID: IZLCZ2-170184 - Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
Materials’ Revolution: Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (phase II)
(NCCR MARVEL)
ID: 51NF40-182892 - European Commission (EC)
H2020 | SGA-RIA
Graphene Flagship Core Project 3
(GrapheneCore3)
ID: 881603 - European Commission (EC)
H2020 | ERC | ERC-COG
Development of Thiophene Based Conjugated Polymers in Two Dimensions
(T2DCP)
ID: 819698 - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Erkundung von Heteroaromatischen und -antiaromatischen atompräzisen Nanographenen
ID: 391979941 - Version / Begutachtungsstatus
- angenommene Version / Postprint / Autorenversion
- URN Qucosa
- urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa2-943689
- Veröffentlichungsdatum Qucosa
- 11.11.2024
- Dokumenttyp
- Artikel
- Sprache des Dokumentes
- Englisch
- Lizenz / Rechtehinweis
