Unconventional Hysteretic Transition in a Charge Density Wave
Name
PhysRevLett.128.036401.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.06 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Lv, BQ
Zong, Alfred
Wu, D
Rozhkov, AV
Fine, Boris V
Chen, Su-Di
Hashimoto, Makoto
Lu, Dong-Hui
Li, M
Huang, Y-B
Date Issued
January 21, 2022
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Citation
Lv, BQ, Zong, Alfred, Wu, D, Rozhkov, AV, Fine, Boris V et al. 2022. "Unconventional Hysteretic Transition in a Charge Density Wave." Physical Review Letters, 128 (3).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Hysteresis underlies a large number of phase transitions in solids, giving rise to exotic metastable states that are otherwise inaccessible. Here, we report an unconventional hysteretic transition in a quasi-2D material, EuTe_{4}. By combining transport, photoemission, diffraction, and x-ray absorption measurements, we observe that the hysteresis loop has a temperature width of more than 400 K, setting a record among crystalline solids. The transition has an origin distinct from known mechanisms, lying entirely within the incommensurate charge density wave (CDW) phase of EuTe_{4} with no change in the CDW modulation periodicity. We interpret the hysteresis as an unusual switching of the relative CDW phases in different layers, a phenomenon unique to quasi-2D compounds that is not present in either purely 2D or strongly coupled 3D systems. Our findings challenge the established theories on metastable states in density wave systems, pushing the boundary of understanding hysteretic transitions in a broken-symmetry state.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.128.036401
