No Arabic abstract
Symmetry breaking and the emergence of order is one of the most fascinating phenomena in condensed matter physics. It leads to a plethora of intriguing ground states found in antiferromagnets, Mott insulators, superconductors, and density-wave systems. Exploiting states of matter far from equilibrium can provide even more striking routes to symmetry-lowered, ordered states. Here, we demonstrate for the case of elemental chromium that moderate ultrafast photo-excitation can transiently enhance the charge-density-wave (CDW) amplitude by up to 30% above its equilibrium value, while strong excitations lead to an oscillating, large-amplitude CDW state that persists above the equilibrium transition temperature. Both effects result from dynamic electron-phonon interactions, providing an efficient mechanism to selectively transform a broad excitation of the electronic order into a well defined, long-lived coherent lattice vibration. This mechanism may be exploited to transiently enhance order parameters in other systems with coupled degrees of freedom.
We performed resonant soft X-ray diffraction on known charge density wave (CDW) compounds, rare earth tri-tellurides. Near the $M_5$ (3d - 4f) absorption edge of rare earth ions, an intense diffraction peak is detected at a wavevector identical to that of CDW state hosted on Te$_2$ planes, indicating a CDW-induced modulation on the rare earth ions. Surprisingly, the temperature dependence of the diffraction peak intensity demonstrates an exponential increase at low temperatures, vastly different than that of the CDW order parameter. Assuming 4f multiplet splitting due to the CDW states,we present a model to calculate X-ray absorption spectrum and resonant profile of the diffraction peak, agreeing well with experimental observations. Our results demonstrate a situation where the temperature dependence of resonant X-ray diffraction peak intensity is not directly related to the intrinsic behavior of the order parameter associated with the electronic order, but is dominated by the thermal occupancy of the valence states.
We study the coupled charge-lattice dynamics in the commensurate charge density wave (CDW) phase of the layered compound 1T-TaS$_{2}$ driven by an ultrashort laser pulse. For describing its electronic structure, we employ a tight-binding model of previous studies including the effects of lattice distortion associated with the CDW order. We further add on-site Coulomb interactions and reproduce an energy gap at the Fermi level within a mean-field analysis. On the basis of coupled equations of motion for electrons and the lattice distortion, we numerically study their dynamics driven by an ultrashort laser pulse. We find that the CDW order decreases and even disappears during the laser irradiation while the lattice distortion is almost frozen. We also find that the lattice motion sets in on a longer time scale and causes a further decrease in the CDW order even after the laser irradiation.
We measured the optical signature of the charge density waves (CDWs) in the multiband conductor TTF[Ni(dmit)2]2 by electronic Raman scattering. At low energies, a hump develops below 60 K. This hump is associated to the amplitude mode of the CDW with an energy around 9 meV. Raman symmetry-resolved measurements show that the CDW amplitude mode is anisotropic and that the CDW can be associated to the band nesting of Ni(dmit)2 chains.
The so-called stripe phase of the manganites is an important example of the complex behaviour of metal oxides, and has long been interpreted as the localisation of charge at atomic sites. Here, we demonstrate via resistance measurements on La_{0.50}Ca_{0.50}MnO_3 that this state is in fact a prototypical charge density wave (CDW) which undergoes collective transport. Dramatic resistance hysteresis effects and broadband noise properties are observed, both of which are typical of sliding CDW systems. Moreover, the high levels of disorder typical of manganites result in behaviour similar to that of well-known disordered CDW materials. Our discovery that the manganite superstructure is a CDW shows that unusual transport and structural properties do not require exotic physics, but can emerge when a well-understood phase (the CDW) coexists with disorder.
In the optical conductivity of four different manganites with commensurate charge order (CO), strong peaks appear in the meV range below the ordering temperature T_{CO}. They are similar to those reported for one-dimensional charge density waves (CDW) and are assigned to pinned phasons. The peaks and their overtones allow one to obtain, for La{1-n/8}Ca{n/8}$MnO{3} with n = 5, 6, the electron-phonon coupling, the effective mass of the CO system, and its contribution to the dielectric constant. These results support a description of the CO in La-Ca manganites in terms of moderately weak-coupling and of the CDW theory.