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  • Letter

Unconventional intervalley scattering around an anisotropic atomic collapse potential

Hui-Ying Ren1,4,*, Yu-Chen Zhuang2,*, Wen-Xin Zhao1,4, Ya-Ning Ren1,4,†, Qing-Feng Sun2,3,‡, and Lin He1,4,§

  • 1Center for Advanced Quantum Studies, School of Physics and Astronomy, Institute for Advanced Study, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
  • 2International Center for Quantum Materials, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • 3Hefei National Laboratory, Hefei 230088, China
  • 4Key Laboratory of Multiscale Spin Physics, Ministry of Education, Beijing 100875, China

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: yning@mail.bnu.edu.cn
  • ‡Contact author: sunqf@pku.edu.cn
  • §Contact author: helin@bnu.edu.cn

Phys. Rev. B 113, L081405 – Published 23 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/sqb6-3s4c

Abstract

Symmetry plays a vital role in determining properties of a system, and therefore, breaking the symmetry often gives rise to physical phenomena beyond the parent system. Here, we show that breaking rotational symmetry of an atomic collapse potential can induce intervalley scattering between states with different orbital angular momenta and result in an additional phase singularity around a supercritically charged vacancy in graphene. By using scanning tunneling microscopy, we directly detect transition of phase accumulation in the intervalley scattering from 4π outside the potential, contributed purely by pseudospin rotation, to 2π or 0π inside the potential, contributed by both the pseudospin rotation and nonzero angular momentum transfer. Moreover, in this study, we reveal that the anisotropic atomic collapse potential breaks the C3 rotational symmetry of graphene and results in unexpected anisotropic interorbital angular momentum scatterings. Our observations establish a route to tune the quantum phase at atomic scale and highlight the role of breaking the symmetry in discovering emergent quantum phenomena in Dirac materials.

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