Square Nets of Tellurium: Rare-Earth Dependent Variation in the Charge-Density Wave of RETe_3 (RE = Rare-Earth Element)

摘要

Charge-density waves (CDWs) are broken symmetry states of mostly strongly anisotropic quasi-one-dimensional metals. As a result of a Peierls instability, their ground state is a coherent superposition of electron-hole pairs which results in a periodic spatial modulation of the charge density. The study of CDWs is important because a successful description of the coupled electronic lattice instability reflects on the broader issue of the electronic aspects of structural stability, which is linked to several interesting phenomena, including superconductivity. The CDW state has not received the same level of attention as superconductivity, although the phenomenon is potentially equally important. Recently, even devices based on CDW materials have been proposed. The vast majority of CDW studies focused on quasi-one-dimensional systems partly because two-dimensional counterparts are scarce.