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A research team led by Professor Sun Qing-Feng in collaboration with Professor He Lin's research group from Beijing Normal University has achieved orbital hybridization in graphene-based artificial atoms for the first time.

Their study, titled "Orbital hybridization in graphene-based artificial atoms" has been in Nature. The work marks a significant milestone in the field of quantum physics and materials science, bridging the gap between artificial and real atomic behaviors.

Quantum dots, often called artificial atoms, can mimic atomic orbitals but have not yet been used to simulate orbital hybridization, a crucial process in real atoms. While quantum dots have successfully demonstrated artificial bonding and antibonding states, their ability to replicate orbital hybridization remained unexplored.

A fundamental understanding of how anisotropic confinement affects hybridization in quantum dots was lacking.

The authors developed a theoretical framework and experimental approach to achieve orbital hybridization in graphene-based quantum dots. They proposed that anisotropic potentials in artificial atoms could induce hybridization between confined states of different orbitals, such as the s orbital (orbital quantum number 0) and the d orbital (orbital quantum number 2).

By deforming the circular potential of graphene quantum dots into an elliptical potential, the team successfully induced orbital hybridization, resulting in two hybridized states with distinct shapes (θ shape and rotated θ shape).

The experimental results, obtained by probing confined states in various quantum dots, confirmed the theoretical predictions, demonstrating the recombination of atomic collapse states (a quantum electrodynamics phenomenon) and whispering gallery modes (an acoustic phenomenon).