Monolayer van der Waals kagome lattice for high-temperature flat-band physics

Kagome lattice materials host a remarkably rich landscape of novel quantum phenomena, all arising from the intrinsic interplay of topology, correlation, and frustration. While previous studies have been mostly limited to bulk three-dimensional (3D) kagome crystals, the realization of a true two-dimensional (2D) kagome system has remained a long-standing goal, to unlock fundamentally new physics and engineering pathways inaccessible in 3D systems. In this work, we establish the first ideal 2D monolayer kagome lattices by leveraging a novel and versatile van der Waals (vdW) kagome family, A2T3X4 (A = K, Rb, Cs; T = Ni, Pd, Pt; X = S, Se). Our nano-focused angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (nano-ARPES) directly characterizes the electronic structure of A2T3X4 down to the monolayer limit, notably revealing an isolated kagome-derived flat band just below the Fermi level. Via gate-engineering of 2D A2T3X4, the kagome flat band can be further tuned to the Fermi level, allowing direct access to the partially filled flat band physics and establishing a qualitatively new 2D flat band platform. Compared to existing moire-based artificial flat band systems, this vdW kagome-based intrinsic flat band system realizes more than 220 times higher flat band electron density, opening an entirely new density and energy regime for exploring 2D flat band physics. Harnessing this high-electron-density flat band in 2D vdW kagome system provides a clear pathway to scale emergent flat band phenomena - such as fractional quantum anomalous Hall states - to far higher temperatures than currently achievable, as long-envisioned in theory and further supported by our many-body calculations.