- Letter
Atomic-level precision creation and manipulation of interfacial Se chemisorbates in heterostructures
Phys. Rev. B 110, L041405 – Published 23 July, 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.110.L041405
Abstract
It has long been an ultimate goal to introduce chemical doping at the atomic level to precisely tune properties of materials. Two-dimensional materials have a natural advantage due to their high surface to volume ratio, but achieving this goal experimentally remains a huge challenge. Here, we demonstrate the ability to introduce chemical doping in graphene with atomic-level precision by controlling chemical adsorption of individual Se atoms, which are extracted from the that is underneath, at the interface of the heterostructures. Our scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements, combined with first-principles calculations, reveal that individual Se atoms can chemisorb on three possible positions in graphene, which generate distinct pseudospin-mediated atomic-scale vortices in graphene. Furthermore, the chemisorbed positions of individual Se atoms can be manipulated by the STM tip, which enables us to achieve atomic-scale control of quantum interference of the pseudospin-mediated vortices in graphene. This result offers the promise of controlling properties of materials with atomic-level precision through chemical doping.