English

Interplay of Kekul\'{e} bond order and lattice instability in $\mathrm{C}_6\mathrm{Li}$

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2025-12-09 v1 Materials Science

Abstract

Understanding the interplay between charge order and lattice instability in quantum materials remains a central challenge, as their coexistence often obscures causal relationships. This work introduces C6Li\mathrm{C}_6\mathrm{Li} as a novel platform to investigate charge order mediated by two distinct mechanisms. We show that the hybridization between carbon π\pi and lithium ss orbitals generates an effective long-range hopping within Li-centered hexagons. This hopping drives a Kekul\'{e} bond order, whose structure varies with charge density and the sign of the hopping. This bond order induces a Kekul\'{e} lattice distortion via electron-phonon coupling. In the limit where lithium atoms are distant from the graphene layer, a Fermi surface nesting-driven Kekul\'{e} bond order emerges, stabilized by the electron-phonon interaction. Our results establish C6Li\mathrm{C}_6\mathrm{Li} as a tunable platform for elucidating the causal hierarchy between electronic and structural orders in quantum materials.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.07491,
  title  = {Interplay of Kekul\'{e} bond order and lattice instability in $\mathrm{C}_6\mathrm{Li}$},
  author = {Yuanhao Zhang and Zi Yuan and Xiangru Kong and Weijiang Gong and Shaozhi Li},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.07491},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

7 pages and 4 figures. Comments are welcome