Electron delocalization in a 2D Mott insulator

TL;DR

This study reveals that at low temperatures, electrons in a 2D Mott insulator delocalize and form a Fermi surface due to Kondo lattice formation, demonstrated through QPI maps and supported by DFT calculations.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence of electron delocalization in a 2D Mott insulator via Kondo lattice formation, a novel insight into correlated electron behavior in heterostructures.

Findings

Emergence of a Fermi contour below 11K in the 2D Mott insulator.

Delocalization of electrons associated with Kondo lattice formation.

Identification of scattering vectors via DFT that explain QPI observations.

Abstract

The prominent role of electron-electron interactions in two-dimensional (2D) materials versus three-dimensional (3D) ones is at the origin of the great variety of fermionic correlated states reported in the literature. In this respect, artificial van der Waals heterostructures comprising single layers of highly correlated insulators allow one to explore the effect of the subtle interlayer interaction in the way electrons correlate. In this work, we study the temperature dependence of the electronic properties of a van der Waals heterostructure composed of a single-layer Mott insulator lying on a metallic substrate by performing quasi-particle interference (QPI) maps. We show the emergence of a Fermi contour in the 2D Mott insulator at temperatures below 11K, which we attribute to the delocalization of the Mott electrons associated with the formation of a quantum coherent Kondo lattice. This Kondo lattice introduces a new periodicity in the system, so that the resulting Fermi surface encompasses both the substrate conduction electrons and the now delocalized correlated electrons from the 2D Mott insulator. Density Functional Theory calculations allow us to pinpoint the scattering vectors responsible for the experimentally observed quasi-particle interference maps, thus providing a complete picture of the delocalization of highly correlated electrons in a 2D Mott insulator.