No Arabic abstract
Strongly correlated materials possess a complex energy landscape and host many interesting physical phenomena, including charge density waves (CDWs). CDWs have been observed and extensively studied in many materials since their first discovery in 1972. Yet, they present ample opportunities for discovery. Here, we report a large tunability in the optical response of a quasi-2D CDW material, 1T-TaS$_2$, upon incoherent light illumination at room temperature. We show that the observed tunability is a consequence of light-induced rearrangement of CDW stacking across the layers of 1T-TaS$_2$. Our model, based on this hypothesis, agrees reasonably well with experiments suggesting that the interdomain CDW interaction is a vital knob to control the phase of strongly correlated materials.
In this study, using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), we focus on understanding the native defects in pristine textit{1T}-TiSe$_2$ at the atomic scale. We probe how they perturb the charge density waves (CDWs) and lead to local domain formation. These defects influence the correlation length of CDWs. We establish a connection between suppression of CDWs, Ti intercalation, and show how this supports the exciton condensation model of CDW formation in textit{1T}-TiSe$_2$.
The ability to tune material properties using gate electric field is at the heart of modern electronic technology. It is also a driving force behind recent advances in two-dimensional systems, such as gate-electric-field induced superconductivity and metal-insulator transition. Here we describe an ionic field-effect transistor (termed iFET), which uses gate-controlled lithium ion intercalation to modulate the material property of layered atomic crystal 1T-TaS$_2$. The extreme charge doping induced by the tunable ion intercalation alters the energetics of various charge-ordered states in 1T-TaS$_2$, and produces a series of phase transitions in thin-flake samples with reduced dimensionality. We find that the charge-density-wave states in 1T-TaS$_2$ are three-dimensional in nature, and completely collapse in the two-dimensional limit defined by their critical thicknesses. Meanwhile the ionic gating induces multiple phase transitions from Mott-insulator to metal in 1T-TaS$_2$ thin flakes at low temperatures, with 5 orders of magnitude modulation in their resistance. Superconductivity emerges in a textured charge-density-wave state induced by ionic gating. Our method of gate-controlled intercalation of 2D atomic crystals in the bulk limit opens up new possibilities in searching for novel states of matter in the extreme charge-carrier-concentration limit.
We studied the nonlocal transport of a quasi-one dimensional conductor $o$-TaS$_3$. Electric transport phenomena in charge density waves include the thermally-excited quasiparticles, and collective motion of charge density waves (CDW). In spite of its long-range correlation, the collective motion of a CDW does not extend far beyond the electrodes, where phase slippage breaks the correlation. We found that nonlocal voltages appeared in the CDW of $o$-TaS$_3$, both below and above the threshold field for CDW sliding. The temperature dependence of the nonlocal voltage suggests that the observed nonlocal voltage originates from the CDW even below the threshold field. Moreover, our observation of nonlocal voltages in both the pinned and sliding states reveals the existence of a carrier with long-range correlation, in addition to sliding CDWs and thermally-excited quasiparticles.
Charge density wave (CDW) is a collective quantum phenomenon in metals and features a wave-like modulation of the conduction electron density. A microscopic understanding and experimental control of this many-body electronic state in atomically thin materials remain hot topics in condensed matter physics. Here we report an interface and/or Zr intercalation induced semiconductor-metal phase transition, as well as a concomitant (2 $times$ 2) CDW order in 1T-ZrX$_2$ (X = Se, Te) thin films prepared on graphitized SiC(0001) substrates. Also observed has been a sizable CDW energy gap up to 22 meV opened at the Fermi level. Fourier-transformed scanning tunneling microscopy reveals a rather simple Fermi surface, consisting only of Zr 4d-derived conduction band at the corners of the Brillouin zone. Our finding that such a simple electronic structure is compatible with the CDW phase proves intriguing and challenges several prevailing scenarios for the formation of CDW in transition metal dichalcogenides.
We investigate the Ti-doping effect on the charge density wave (CDW) of 1T-TaS2 by combining scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements and first-principle calculations. Although the Ti-doping induced phase evolution seems regular with increasing of the doping concentration (x), an unexpected chiral CDW phase is observed in the sample with x = 0.08, in which Ti atoms almost fully occupy the central Ta atoms in the CDW clusters. The emergence of the chiral CDW is proposed to be from the doping-enhanced orbital order. Only when x = 0.08, the possible long-range orbital order can trigger the chiral CDW phase. Compared with other 3d-elements doped 1T-TaS2, the Ti-doping retains the electronic flat band and the corresponding CDW phase, which is a prerequisite for the emergence of chirality. We expect that introducing elements with a strong orbital character may induce a chiral charge order in a broad class of CDW systems. The present results open up another avenue for further exploring the chiral CDW materials.