Charge state-dependent symmetry breaking of atomic defects in transition metal dichalcogenides
Creators
- 1. nanotech@surfaces Laboratory, Empa – Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, 8600, Switzerland
- 2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA
- 3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16082, USA
- 4. Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, 138632, Republic of Singapore
- 5. Two-Dimensional Crystal Consortium, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA
- 6. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu City, 300, Taiwan, ROC
- 7. Department of Chemistry and Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA
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Description
The functionality of atomic quantum emitters is intrinsically linked to their host lattice coordination. Structural distortions that spontaneously break the lattice symmetry strongly impact their optical emission properties and spin-photon interface. In a recent manuscript, we report on the direct imaging of charge state-dependent symmetry breaking of two prototypical atomic quantum emitters in mono- and bilayer MoS₂ by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and non-contact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM). By changing the built-in substrate chemical potential, different charge states of sulfur vacancies (VacS) and substitutional rhenium dopants (ReMo) can be stabilized. VacS⁻¹ as well as ReMo⁰ and ReMo⁻¹ exhibit local lattice distortions and symmetry-broken defect orbitals attributed to a Jahn-Teller effect (JTE) and pseudo-JTE, respectively. By mapping the electronic and geometric structure of single point defects, we disentangle the effects of spatial averaging, charge multistability, configurational dynamics, and external perturbations that often mask the presence of local symmetry breaking. This record contains data to support the results discussed in our manuscript.
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References
Journal reference (Manuscript where the results are discussed) F. Xiang, L. Huberich, P. A. Vargas, R. Torsi, J. Allerbeck, A. M. Z. Tan, C. Dong, P. Ruffieux, R. Fasel, O. Gröning, Y.-C. Lin, R. G. Hennig, J. A. Robinson, B. Schuler, Nat. Commun. 15, 2738 (2024)., doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-47039-4