High-yield production of quantum corrals in a surface reconstruction pattern

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a high-yield method to create stable quantum corrals on gold surfaces using surface reconstruction patterns, enabling robust quantum structures with hybridized atomic orbitals for quantum technology applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel surface reconstruction approach to produce stable, high-yield quantum corrals with hybridized orbitals, improving robustness over previous atom-by-atom methods.

Findings

Quantum corrals confined within nanopores show atomic orbital-like states.

Hybridization of atomic orbitals into molecular-like states observed.

High-yield, robust fabrication of quantum structures achieved.

Abstract

The power of surface chemistry to create atomically precise nanoarchitectures offers intriguing opportunities to advance the field of quantum technology. Strategies for building artificial electronic lattices by individually positioning atoms or molecules result in precisely tailored structures but lack structural robustness. Here, taking the advantage of strong bonding of Br atoms on noble metal surfaces, we report the production of stable quantum corrals by dehalogenation of hexabromobenzene molecules on a preheated Au(111) surface. The byproducts, Br adatoms, are confined within a new surface reconstruction pattern and aggregate into nanopores with an average size of 3.7+-0.1 nm, which create atomic orbital-like quantum resonance states inside each corral due to the interference of scattered electron waves. Remarkably, the atomic orbitals can be hybridized into molecular-like orbitals with distinct bonding and anti-bonding states. Our study opens up an avenue to fabricate quantum structures with high yield and superior robustness.