Conjugational defects, also known as solitons, play an important role in the electronic, magnetic, and optical properties of materials. Understanding solitons can uncover intriguing physics and provide insights for designing quantum materials with tailored band structures and electronic properties. Here, we propose a framework to create and control solitons via topological phase transitions in a class of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) called square-root GNRs, using a transverse electric field. To demonstrate the experimental feasibility, we design and synthesize a representative GNR with a bottom-up approach, with first-principles calculations revealing topological soliton states at the domain wall induced by the electric field. The framework introduced in this Letter can potentially enable direct manipulation of solitons and provide a platform to study them systematically.

Close

PrevNext

View figure in article

• Topological phase transition
• Graphene
• Nanoribbon
• Topological insulators
• Topological materials
• First-principles calculations
• Tight-binding model