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Scanning tunnelling microscopy of charge density waves in 1T‐TaS 2
Author(s) -
Thomson R.E.,
Walter U.,
Ganz E.,
Rauch P.,
Zettl A.,
Clarke J.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2818.1988.tb01448.x
Subject(s) - triclinic crystal system , condensed matter physics , charge density wave , lattice (music) , quantum tunnelling , scanning tunneling microscope , hexagonal lattice , phase (matter) , hexagonal crystal system , diffraction , materials science , physics , crystallography , crystal structure , chemistry , optics , quantum mechanics , superconductivity , antiferromagnetism , acoustics
SUMMARY Using a variable temperature scanning tunnelling microscope we have observed both the lattice and the triple charge density wave (CDW) in 1T‐TaS 2 . We obtained images of the nearly‐commensurate (NC) phase between 350 and 200 K and the triclinic (T) phase between 220 and 280 K. We analysed the images to determine the local angle of rotation of the CDW relative to the lattice to determine if commensurate domains exist in this material. In the NC phase we do not see the hexagonal discommensurate domains proposed by Nakanishi el al. (1977), but observe a structure which is uniformly incommensurate. The orientation of the CDW relative to the lattice is observed to be locally incommensurate and to vary continuously with temperature as reported by Scruby et al. (1975). However, in the T phase we observe long narrow commensurate domains very similar to those described by Nakanishi and Shiba (1984) for this phase.