Probing Lz Orbital Angular Momentum via Wavefunction-Interference-Induced Charge Order
Abstract
Orbital angular momentum (OAM) characterization is central to understanding quantum materials such as valley Hall and Rashba systems and, through its connection to Berry curvature, provides key insight into band topology. Conventional OAM detection via photoemission dichroism, however, is susceptible to interference artifacts and is largely restricted to occupied states. Here, we demonstrate a real-space approach to map the Lz OAM character using scanning tunneling microscopy in triangular atomic monolayers. Unlike photoemission, this method exploits interference effects arising from the Lz orbital phase and the Bloch phase associated with neighboring atoms. This shifts the local density of states (LDOS) maxima to distinct Wyckoff positions between atoms, encoding Lz information into characteristic real-space LDOS patterns. We exemplify this approach in 2D quantum materials with contrasting Lz sequences, namely Tl/Si(111) and In/SiC(0001) monolayers, identifying Lz-dependent LDOS accumulation associated with distinct topological phases in both systems. Our results establish Lz-dependent charge localization as a proxy to atomic obstruction for energetically isolated states in triangular lattices, including transition-metal dichalcogenides.
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BibTeX
@misc{erhardt2026probing,
title = {{Probing $L_z$ Orbital Angular Momentum via Wavefunction-Interference-Induced Charge Order}},
author = {Jonas Erhardt and Sven Schemmelmann and Fabian Schöttke and Cedric Schmitt and Lukas Gehrig and Bing Liu and Domenico Di Sante and Giorgio Sangiovanni and Jörg Schäfer and Peter Krüger and Markus Donath and Ralph Claessen},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.11633},
eprint = {2610.11633},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11633},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Probing L_z Orbital Angular Momentum via Wavefunction-Interference-Induced Charge Order
AU - Jonas Erhardt
AU - Sven Schemmelmann
AU - Fabian Schöttke
AU - Cedric Schmitt
AU - Lukas Gehrig
AU - Bing Liu
AU - Domenico Di Sante
AU - Giorgio Sangiovanni
AU - Jörg Schäfer
AU - Peter Krüger
AU - Markus Donath
AU - Ralph Claessen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.11633
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11633
AB - Orbital angular momentum (OAM) characterization is central to understanding quantum materials such as valley Hall and Rashba systems and, through its connection to Berry curvature, provides key insight into band topology. Conventional OAM detection via photoemission dichroism, however, is susceptible to interference artifacts and is largely restricted to occupied states. Here, we demonstrate a real-space approach to map the L_z OAM character using scanning tunneling microscopy in triangular atomic monolayers. Unlike photoemission, this method exploits interference effects arising from the L_z orbital phase and the Bloch phase associated with neighboring atoms. This shifts the local density of states (LDOS) maxima to distinct Wyckoff positions between atoms, encoding L_z information into characteristic real-space LDOS patterns. We exemplify this approach in 2D quantum materials with contrasting L_z sequences, namely Tl/Si(111) and In/SiC(0001) monolayers, identifying L_z-dependent LDOS accumulation associated with distinct topological phases in both systems. Our results establish L_z-dependent charge localization as a proxy to atomic obstruction for energetically isolated states in triangular lattices, including transition-metal dichalcogenides.
ER -