Large-gap insulating dimer ground state in monolayer IrTe2

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28542-y
• Publication Date: 2022-02-16T11:03:04Z
• Authors: Jinwoong Hwang; Kyoo Kim; Canxun Zhang; Tiancong Zhu; Charlotte Herbig; Sooran Kim; Bongjae Kim; Yong Zhong; Mohamed Salah; Mohamed M. El-Desoky; Choongyu Hwang; Zhi-Xun Shen; Michael F. Crommie; Sung-Kwan Mo
• Keywords: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy; Organic chemistry; Biochemistry; 01 natural sciences; Charge (physics); Nuclear magnetic resonance; Band gap; Materials Chemistry; Photoemission spectroscopy; Nanotechnology; Graphene: Properties, Synthesis, and Applications; Spectroscopy; Quantum Physics; Condensed Matter - Materials Science; Physics; Q; Membrane; van der Waals force; Condensed Matter Physics; Condensed matter physics; Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics; Chemistry; Physical Sciences; Metallurgy; Topological Insulators and Superconductors; Molecular physics; Science; Ground state; Chemical physics; Materials Science; FOS: Physical sciences; 530; Quantum mechanics; Article; Monolayer MoS2; Atomic physics; 0103 physical sciences; Coupling (piping); Bilayer; Two-Dimensional Materials; FOS: Nanotechnology; Monolayer; Molecule; 500; Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci); Materials science; Topological Insulators; Scanning tunneling microscope; Physics and Astronomy

Monolayers of two-dimensional van der Waals materials exhibit novel electronic phases distinct from their bulk due to the symmetry breaking and reduced screening in absence interlayer coupling. In this work, we combine angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy demonstrate emergence a unique insulating 2 × 1 dimer ground state monolayer 1T-IrTe2 that has large band gap contrast metallic bilayer-to-bulk forms material. First-principles calculations reveal phonon charge instabilities as well local bond formation collectively enhance stabilize charge-ordered state. Our findings provide important insights into subtle balance interactions having similar energy scales occurs strong coupling, which offers new opportunities engineer properties 2D monolayers.