Intrinsic Heavy Wigner Crystal Forged by Transferred <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> <mml:mi>f</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> Electrons
As a quintessential quantum matter, realizing robust Wigner crystals and achieving their angstrom-scale imaging remain formidable challenges. Here, we devise an original charge-transfer-crystallization strategy to realize an intrinsic electron solid made of 4f electrons. The highly localized and correlated nature of 4f electrons gives rise to a heavy Wigner crystal. This unprecedented heaviness manifests as an electron solid with record-high density (2.02×10^{13}/cm^{-2}) and melting temperature (>60 K). Q-plus atomic force microscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy are employed to directly image the Wigner crystal, by which the sub-unit-cell localization and electrostatic influence of Wigner electrons are accurately determined. Moreover, the collective tunneling is captured, underlining the quantum nature of a Wigner crystal. Our discovery presents the 4f system as a tunable platform with the charge-transfer degree of freedom to study the 2D many-body correlation of heavy electrons.
Authors
- Karl J. Friston
Institutions
- Fudan University (CN)
- Hefei University (CN)
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2025-11-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/h96x-9d3y
- Primary Topic
- Quantum and electron transport phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00