Massive 1D Dirac Line, Solitons and Reversible Manipulation on the Surface of a Prototype Obstructed Atomic Insulator, Silicon

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that silicon is an obstructed atomic insulator with unique surface states, revealing massive Dirac lines and topological solitons, and shows reversible manipulation of chain domains for potential high-density storage applications.

Contribution

It identifies silicon as a prototype obstructed atomic insulator with novel surface states and demonstrates reversible nanometer-scale domain switching.

Findings

Observation of sharp quasi-1D massive Dirac line dispersions on Si surface

Detection of topological solitons at atomic chain interfaces

Reversible switching of chain domains at nanometer scale

Abstract

Topologically trivial insulators can be classified into atomic insulators (AIs) and obstructed atomic insulators (OAIs) depending on whether the Wannier charge centers are localized or not at spatial positions occupied by atoms. An OAI can possess unusual properties such as surface states along certain crystalline surfaces, which advantageously appear in materials with much larger bulk energy gap than topological insulators, making them more attractive for potential applications. In this work, we show that a well-known crystal, silicon (Si) is a model OAI, which naturally explains some of Si's unusual properties such as its famous (111) surface states. On this surface, using angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), we reveal sharp quasi-1D massive Dirac line dispersions; we also observe, using scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS), topological solitons at the interface of the two atomic chains. Remarkably, we show that the different chain domains can be reversibly switched at the nanometer scale, suggesting the application potential in ultra-high density storage devices.