Topological states in engineered atomic lattices

Understand

Topological materials exhibit protected edge modes that have been proposed for applications in for example spintronics and quantum computation.

• While a number of such systems exist, it would be desirable to be able to test theoretical proposals in an artificial system that allows precise control over the key parameters of the model.
• The essential physics of several topological systems can be captured by tight-binding models, which can also be implemented in artificial lattices.
• Here, we show that this method can be realized in a vacancy lattice in a chlorine monolayer on a Cu(100) surface.