Atomic wires at surfaces: A perspective on the article: 'Peierls instability in Pt chains on Ge(001)' by A. van Houselt, T. Gnielka, J.M.J. Aan van de Brugh, N. Oncel, D. Kockmann, R. Heid, K.-P. Bohnen, B. Poelsema and H.J.W. Zandvliet

摘要

Physical objects in low dimensions have intriguing properties. Due to their extreme confinement of electronic states, the quantized nature of these states appears, but at the same time the electrons also become strongly correlated. For metallic systems, this may turn the Fermi liquid known from three-dimensional metals into a Luttinger liquid for a one-dimensional (1d) metallic wire. However, the question to what extent any physical realization of a 1d conducting system comes close to the ideal Luttinger liquid model is still under debate. Particularly in one-dimensional systems, the enhanced interaction and correlation is accompanied by instabilities. Interactions between lattice, charge and spin cause formation of charge and spin density waves that lower the energy and lead to metal-insulator transitions in the electronic transport properties of such a system [1,2].