Abstract
We fabricate artificial molecules composed of heavy atom lead on a van der Waals crystal. Pb atoms templated on a honeycomb charge-order superstructure of IrTe2 form clusters ranging from dimers to heptamers including benzene-shaped ring hexamers. Tunneling spectroscopy and electronic structure calculations reveal the formation of unusual relativistic molecular orbitals within the clusters. The spin–orbit coupling is essential both in forming such Dirac electronic states and stabilizing the artificial molecules by reducing the adatom–substrate interaction. Lead atoms are found to be ideally suited for a maximized relativistic effect. This work initiates the use of novel two-dimensional orderings to guide the fabrication of artificial molecules of unprecedented properties.
Highlights
The molecular orbital formation is clearly observed in the Pb clusters from dimers
the unusual bonding and spin structure of these relativistic molecular orbitals may be combined with the novel electronic properties of the substrate
the emerging superconductivity[26] to lead to a new type of a quantum system
Summary
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