Two-dimensional few-atom noble gas clusters in a graphene sandwich

Autor(en)

Manuel Längle, Kenichiro Mizohata, Clemens Mangler, Alberto Trentino, Kimmo Mustonen, E. Harriet Åhlgren, Jani Kotakoski

Abstrakt

The van der Waals atomic solids of noble gases on metals at cryogenic temperatures were the first experimental examples of two-dimensional systems. Recently, such structures have also been created on surfaces under encapsulation by graphene, allowing studies at elevated temperatures through scanning tunnelling microscopy. However, for this technique, the encapsulation layer often obscures the arrangement of the noble gas atoms. Here we create Kr and Xe clusters in between two suspended graphene layers, and uncover their atomic structure through transmission electron microscopy. We show that small crystals (N < 9) arrange on the basis of the simple non-directional van der Waals interaction. Larger crystals show some deviations, possibly enabled by deformations in the encapsulating graphene lattice. We further discuss the dynamics of the clusters within the graphene sandwich, and show that although all the Xe clusters with up to N ≈ 100 remain solid, Kr clusters with already N ≈ 16 turn occasionally fluid under our experimental conditions (under a pressure of ~0.3 GPa). This study opens a way for the so-far unexplored frontier of encapsulated two-dimensional van der Waals solids with exciting possibilities for fundamental condensed-matter physics research and possible applications in quantum information technology.

Organisation(en)

Physik Nanostrukturierter Materialien

Externe Organisation(en)

University of Helsinki

Journal

Nature Materials

Band

23

Seiten

762–767

Anzahl der Seiten

6

ISSN

1476-1122

DOI

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2306.15436

Publikationsdatum

01-2024

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103015 Kondensierte Materie, 103018 Materialphysik

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Allgemeine Chemie, Allgemeine Materialwissenschaften, Condensed Matter Physics, Mechanics of Materials, Mechanical Engineering

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/43cccdb1-d5f0-4001-9caa-53cc8b1598b5