Evidence for a Peierls phase-transition in a three-dimensional multiple charge-density waves solid
The effect of dimensionality on materials properties has become strikingly evident with the recent discovery of graphene. Charge ordering phenomena can be induced in one dimension by periodic distortions of a material’s crystal structure, termed Peierls ordering transition. Charge-density waves can...
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Published in | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 109; no. 15; pp. 5603 - 5608 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
National Academy of Sciences
10.04.2012
National Acad Sciences |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The effect of dimensionality on materials properties has become strikingly evident with the recent discovery of graphene. Charge ordering phenomena can be induced in one dimension by periodic distortions of a material’s crystal structure, termed Peierls ordering transition. Charge-density waves can also be induced in solids by strong coulomb repulsion between carriers, and at the extreme limit, Wigner predicted that crystallization itself can be induced in an electrons gas in free space close to the absolute zero of temperature. Similar phenomena are observed also in higher dimensions, but the microscopic description of the corresponding phase transition is often controversial, and remains an open field of research for fundamental physics. Here, we photoinduce the melting of the charge ordering in a complex three-dimensional solid and monitor the consequent charge redistribution by probing the optical response over a broad spectral range with ultrashort laser pulses. Although the photoinduced electronic temperature far exceeds the critical value, the charge-density wave is preserved until the lattice is sufficiently distorted to induce the phase transition. Combining this result with ab initio electronic structure calculations, we identified the Peierls origin of multiple charge-density waves in a three-dimensional system for the first time. |
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Bibliography: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1117028109 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Author contributions: F.C. designed research; B.M., M.J.G.C., T.J.P., S.B.D., R.T., M.C., and F.C. performed research; B.M., M.J.G.C., T.J.P., S.B.D., R.T., M.C., and F.C. analyzed data; and B.M., S.B.D., M.C., and F.C. wrote the paper. Edited by Margaret M. Murnane, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, and approved February 10, 2012 (received for review October 17, 2011) |
ISSN: | 0027-8424 1091-6490 |
DOI: | 10.1073/pnas.1117028109 |