Toward equilibrium ground state of charge density waves in rare-earth tritellurides

Abstract

We show that the charge density wave (CDW) ground state below the Peierls transition temperature, $T_{CDW}$, of rare-earth tritellurides is not at its equilibrium value, but depends on the time where the system was kept at a fixed temperature below $T_{CDW}$. This ergodicity breaking is revealed by the increase of the threshold electric field for CDW sliding which depends exponentially on time. We tentatively explain this behavior by the reorganization of the oligomeric (Te${}_x$)${}^{2-}$ sequence forming the CDW modulation.

arXiv comment10 pages, 5 figures, accepted in PRB

References in corpus (8)

• Electronic crystals: an experimental overview
• Alternative route to charge density wave formation in multiband systems
• Theory of stripes in quasi two dimensional rare-earth tritellurides
• Local atomic structure and discommensurations in the charge density wave of CeTe3
• Sliding charge-density-wave in two-dimensional rare-earth tellurides
• Spontaneous breaking of isotropy observed in the electronic transport of rare-earth tritellurides
• Evidence for photoinduced sliding of the charge-order condensate in La${}_{1.875}$Ba${}_{0.125}$CuO${}_4$
• Effect of dimensionality on sliding charge density waves. The case of the quasi-two dimensional TbTe${}_3$ system probed by coherent x-ray diffraction