No Arabic abstract
In the presence of multiple bands, well-known electronic instabilities may acquire new complexity. While multiband superconductivity is the subject of extensive studies, the possibility of multiband charge density waves (CDWs) has been largely ignored so far. Here, combining energy dependent scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) topography with a simple model of the charge modulations and a self-consistent calculation of the CDW gap, we find evidence for a multiband CDW in 2H-NbSe$_2$. This CDW not only involves the opening of a gap on the inner band around the K-point, but also on the outer band. This leads to spatially out-of-phase charge modulations from electrons on these two bands, which we detect through a characteristic energy dependence of the CDW contrast in STM images.
Charge density wave, or CDW, is usually associated with Fermi surfaces nesting. We here report a new CDW mechanism discovered in a 2H-structured transition metal dichalcogenide, where the two essential ingredients of CDW are realized in very anomalous ways due to the strong-coupling nature of the electronic structure. Namely, the CDW gap is only partially open, and charge density wavevector match is fulfilled through participation of states of the large Fermi patch, while the straight FS sections have secondary or negligible contributions.
The transition metal dichalcogenide 1T-TaS2 attract growing attention because of the formation of rich density-wave (DW) and superconducting transitions. However, the origin of the incommensurate DW state at the highest temperature (~ 550 K), which is the parent state of the rich physical phenomena, is still uncovered. Here, we present a natural explanation for the triple-q incommensurate DW in 1T-TaS2 based on the first-principles Hubbard model with on-site U. We apply the paramagnon interference mechanism that gives the nematic order in Fe-based superconductors. The derived order parameter has very unique characters: (i) the orbital-selective nature, and (ii) the unconventional sign-reversal in both momentum and energy spaces. The present study will be useful for understanding rich physics in 1T-TaS2, 1T-VSe2, and other transition metal dichalcogenides.
X-ray and electron diffraction measurements on the metal-insulator (M-I) transition compound PrRu$_4$P$_{12}$ have revealed the emergence of a periodic ordering of charge density around the Pr atoms. It is found that the ordering is associated with the onset of a low temperature insulator phase. These conclusions are supported by the facts that the space group of the crystal structure transforms from Im$bar{3}$ to Pm$bar{3}$ below the M-I transition temperature and also that the temperature dependence of the superlattice peaks in the insulator phase follows the squared BCS function. The M-I transition could be originated from the perfect nesting of the Fermi surface and/or the instability of the $f$ electrons.
Charge and spin density waves, periodic modulations of the electron and magnetization densities, respectively, are among the most abundant and non-trivial low-temperature ordered phases in condensed matter. The ordering direction is widely believed to result from the Fermi surface topology. However, several recent studies indicate that this common view needs to be supplemented. Here, we show how an enhanced electron-lattice interaction can contribute to or even determine the selection of the ordering vector in the model charge density wave system ErTe3. Our joint experimental and theoretical study allows us to establish a relation between the selection rules of the electronic light scattering spectra and the enhanced electron-phonon coupling in the vicinity of band degeneracy points. This alternative proposal for charge density wave formation may be of general relevance for driving phase transitions into other broken-symmetry ground states, particularly in multiband systems such as the iron based superconductors.
We report a rectangular charge density wave (CDW) phase in strained 1T-VSe$_2$ thin films synthesized by molecular beam epitaxy on c-sapphire substrates. The observed CDW structure exhibits an unconventional rectangular 4a{times}{sqrt{3a}} periodicity, as opposed to the previously reported hexagonal $4atimes4a$ structure in bulk crystals and exfoliated thin layered samples. Tunneling spectroscopy shows a strong modulation of the local density of states of the same $4atimessqrt{3}a$ CDW periodicity and an energy gap of $2Delta_{CDW}=(9.1pm0.1)$ meV. The CDW energy gap evolves into a full gap at temperatures below 500 mK, indicating a transition to an insulating phase at ultra-low temperatures. First-principles calculations confirm the stability of both $4atimes4a$ and $4atimessqrt{3}a$ structures arising from soft modes in the phonon dispersion. The unconventional structure becomes preferred in the presence of strain, in agreement with experimental findings.