Abstract
Quantum corrals can be considered artificial atoms. By coupling many quantum corrals together, artificial matter can be created at will. The atomic scale precision with which the quantum corrals can be made grants the ability to tune parameters that are difficult to control in real materials, such as the symmetry of the states that couple, the on-site energy of these states, the hopping strength and the magnitude of the orbital overlap. Here, we systematically investigate the accessible parameter space for the CO on Cu(111) platform by constructing (coupled) quantum corrals of different sizes and shapes. By changing the configuration of the CO molecules that constitute the barrier between two quantum corrals, the hopping integral can be tuned between 0 and -0.3 eV for s- and p-like states, respectively. Incorporation of orbital overlap is essential to account for the experimental observations. Our results aid the design of future artificial lattices.
Highlights
The scanning tunneling microscope makes it possible to position adsorbates and vacancies on surfaces with atomic scale accuracy [1]
We focus on rectangular and triangular corrals, as these allow for space-filling artificial lattices
All differential conductance spectra shown have been averaged over several measurements acquired at the same position, and divided by an average of several spectra taken on bare Cu(111) with the same tip apex to minimise the LDOS contribution from the tip [26]
Summary
The scanning tunneling microscope makes it possible to position adsorbates and vacancies on surfaces with atomic scale accuracy [1]. The first approach is based on coupling localized states of either adatoms, vacancies or dangling bonds, [16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23] By positioning such species with atomic scale precision, artificial electronic molecules or lattices can be created and their electronic structure studied. At the energies corresponding to the s-type states, we only observe one peak, indicating that these states do not couple (coupling strength below the detection limit of our experiment). This confirms the idea that artificial lattices allow coupling between sites by one type of state only [49]. Note that this provides a degree of freedom that is not available in real materials
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