title: Stabilization and manipulation of electronically phase-separated ground states in defective indium atom wires on silicon.
abstract: Exploration and manipulation of electronic states in low-dimensional systems are of great importance in the fundamental and practical aspects of nanomaterial and nanotechnology. Here, we demonstrate that the incorporation of vacancy defects into monatomic indium wires on n-type Si(111) can stabilize electronically phase-separated ground states where the insulating 8×2 and metallic 4×1 phases coexist. Furthermore, the areal ratio of the two phases in the phase-separated states can be tuned reversibly by electric field or charge doping, and such tunabilities can be quantitatively captured by first principles-based modeling and simulations. The present results extend the realm of electronic phase separation from strongly correlated d-electron materials typically in bulk form to weakly interacting sp-electron systems in reduced dimensionality.
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale (HFNL) and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territory, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Fangfei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ming
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Hanyang University, 17 Haengdang-Dong, SeongDong-Ku, Seoul 133-791, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun-Jung
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale (HFNL) and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Hongbin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale (HFNL) and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA and Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
authors.forename: Hanno H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Weitering
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territory, Hong Kong, China and Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shenzhen 518055, China.
authors.forename: Xudong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale (HFNL) and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China and International Center for Quantum Design of Functional Materials (ICQD), HFNL, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Changgan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Hanyang University, 17 Haengdang-Dong, SeongDong-Ku, Seoul 133-791, Korea.
authors.forename: Jun-Hyung
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: International Center for Quantum Design of Functional Materials (ICQD), HFNL, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Zhenyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang