Topological quantum phase transition of nickelocene on Cu(100)
Abstract
Local quantum phase transitions driven by Kondo correlations have been theoretically proposed in several magnetic nanosystems; however, clear experimental signatures are scant. Modeling a nickelocene molecule on a Cu(100) substrate as a two-orbital Anderson impurity with single-ion easy-plane anisotropy coupled to two conduction bands, we find that recent scanning tunneling spectra measured at different microscope tip heights reveal the existence of a topological quantum phase transition from the usual local Fermi liquid with high zero-bias conductance to a non-Landau Fermi liquid, characterized by a non-trivial quantized Luttinger integral, with a small conductance. The effects of intermediate valence, finite temperature, and structural relaxation of the molecule position allow us to explain the different observed behaviors.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2205.10476,
title = {Topological quantum phase transition of nickelocene on Cu(100)},
author = {G. G. Blesio and R. Žitko and L. O. Manuel and A. A. Aligia},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.10476},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
6 pages, 4 figures. Accepted in SciPost Physics