Inelastic Tunneling into Multipolaronic Bound States in Single-Layer MoS_{2}
Polarons are quasiparticles that arise from the interaction of electrons or holes with lattice vibrations. Though polarons are well studied across multiple disciplines, experimental observations of polarons in two-dimensional crystals are sparse. We use scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Physical Society
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Physical Review X |
| Online Access: | http://doi.org/10.1103/l8lg-ny6m |
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| Summary: | Polarons are quasiparticles that arise from the interaction of electrons or holes with lattice vibrations. Though polarons are well studied across multiple disciplines, experimental observations of polarons in two-dimensional crystals are sparse. We use scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy to measure inelastic excitations of polaronic bound states emerging from coupling of nonpolar zone-boundary phonons to Bloch electrons in n-doped metallic single-layer MoS_{2}. The latter is kept chemically pristine via contactless chemical doping. Tunneling into the vibrationally coupled polaronic states leads to a series of evenly spaced peaks in the differential conductance on either side of the Fermi level. Combining density functional (perturbation) theory with a recently developed ab initio electron-lattice downfolding technique, we show that the energy spacing stems from the longitudinal-acoustic phonon mode that flattens at the Brillouin zone edge and is responsible for the formation of stable multipolarons in metallic MoS_{2}. |
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| ISSN: | 2160-3308 |