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Imaging Kekulé Spiral Order in Graphene

Can Zhang1,2,*, Hua Chen3,*, Ying Su4,*, Fudi Zhou1,2, Lili Zhou1,2, Zhaoteng Dong1,2, Mengya Ren1,2, Lijun Zhang5,†, Yu Zhang1,2,6,‡ et al.

Yeliang Wang1,§

  • 1School of Integrated Circuits and Electronics, MIIT Key Laboratory for Low-Dimensional Quantum Structure and Devices, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
  • 2School of Interdisciplinary Science, State Key Laboratory of Environment Characteristics and Effects for Near-space, Beijing Key Laboratory of Quantum Matter State Control and Ultra-Precision Measurement Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
  • 3Department of Physics, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China
  • 4School of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
  • 5State Key Laboratory of Integrated Optoelectronics, Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials of MOE, Key Laboratory of Material Simulation Methods and Software of MOE, and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, China
  • 6Key Laboratory of Multiscale Spin Physics (Ministry of Education), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: lijun_zhang@jlu.edu.cn
  • ‡Contact author: yzhang@bit.edu.cn
  • §Contact author: yeliang.wang@bit.edu.cn

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 156401 – Published 13 April, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/ncq1-yzpd

Abstract

Breaking the intrinsic chiral symmetry of massless Dirac fermions in graphene at the two inequivalent valleys gives rise to rich intriguing phenomena. A prototypical example of this is the Kekulé order. Here, we use STM to directly visualize the bond texture associated with Kekulé spiral order in graphene. The Kekulé order originates from the intervalley scattering at 1D grain boundaries, and its strength can be significantly suppressed when a periodic potential is applied. By mapping atomic-scale electronic wave functions, we uncover that the bond texture localized near the 1D boundaries exhibits a complex spatial dependence indicative of phase winding, and it evolves dramatically with electronic energy. Our local-probe measurements thus establish the emergence of Kekulé spiral order in graphene, highlighting topological defects as versatile building blocks for engineering valley-ordered phases.

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