Abstract
Kagome lattices host flat bands due to their frustrated lattice geometry, which leads to destructive quantum interference of electron wave functions. Here, we report imaging of the kagome flat band localization in real-space using scanning tunneling microscopy. We identify both the Fe3Sn kagome lattice layer and the Sn2 honeycomb layer with atomic resolution in kagome antiferromagnet FeSn. On the Fe3Sn lattice, at the flat band energy determined by the angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy, tunneling spectroscopy detects an unusual state localized uniquely at the Fe kagome lattice network. We further show that the vectorial in-plane magnetic field manipulates the spatial anisotropy of the localization state within each kagome unit cell. Our results are consistent with the real-space flat band localization in the magnetic kagome lattice. We further discuss the magnetic tuning of flat band localization under the spin–orbit coupled magnetic kagome lattice model.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 17 |
| Journal | Communications Materials |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2023 |
Funding
M.Z.H. acknowledges support from the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, Quantum Science Center and Princeton University; visiting scientist support at Berkeley Lab (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) during the early phases of this work; support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF9461); and support from the US DOE under the Basic Energy Sciences program (grant number DOE/BES DE-FG-02-05ER46200) for the theory and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy work. B.L. is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National Science Foundation through Princeton University’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Center DMR-2011750; and the National Science Foundation under award DMR-2141966. J.-X.Y. acknowledges support from South University of Science and Technology of China principal research grant (number Y01202500). H.L. was supported by National Key R&D Program of China (Grants Nos. 2018YFE0202600 and 2022YFA1403800), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. Z200005), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants Nos. 12274459). Work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. Work at Rice University was supported by US NSF-DMR-2100741 and by the Robert A. Welch Foundation under grant no. C-1839.