Controlled self-organization of atom vacancies in monatomic gallium layers

Crystalline Structure and Vacancy Ordering across a Surface Phase Transition in Sn/Cu(001)

We report a surface X-ray diffraction study of the crystalline structure changes and critical behavior across the (3√2 × √2)R45° → (√2 × √2)R45° surface phase transition at 360 K for 0.5 monolayers of Sn on Cu(100). The phase transition is of the order-disorder type and is due to the disordering of the Cu atomic vacancies present in the low temperature phase. Two different atomic sites for Sn atoms, characterized by two different heights, are maintained across the surface phase transition.

Adsorption of small inorganic molecules on a defective MoS2monolayer

Different molecules physisorbed, chemisorbed or dissociated on a defective MoS₂layer.

Stabilization and manipulation of electronically phase-separated ground states in defective indium atom wires on silicon

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.