Here we present a flexible strategy to realize robust nanomaterials exhibiting valence electronic structures whose fundamental physics is described by the SSH-Hamiltonian. These solid-state materials are realized using atomically precise graphene nanoribbons (GNR). We demonstrate the controlled periodic coupling of topological boundary states at junctions of armchair GNRs of different widths to create quasi-1D trivial and non-trivial electronic quantum phases. Their topological class is experimentally determined by drawing upon the bulk-boundary correspondence and measuring the presence (non-trivial) or absence (trivial) of localized end states by scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS). The strategy we propose has the potential to tune the band width of the topological electronic bands close to the energy scale of proximity induced spin-orbit coupling or superconductivity, and may allow the realization of Kitaev like Hamiltonians and Majorana type end states.
@article{arxiv.1805.06635,
title = {Engineering of robust topological quantum phases in graphene nanoribbons},
author = {Oliver Gröning and Shiyong Wang and Xuelin Yao and Carlo A. Pignedoli and Gabriela Borin Barin and Colin Daniels and Andrew Cupo and Vincent Meunier and Xinliang Feng and Akimitsu Narita and Klaus Müllen and Pascal Ruffieux and Roman Fasel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.06635},
year = {2018}
}