Observation and manipulation of a phase separated state in a charge density wave material
arXiv:2112.09240 · doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c04514
Abstract
The 1T polytype of TaS has been studied extensively as a strongly correlated system. As 1T-TaS is thinned towards the 2D limit, its phase diagram shows significant deviations from that of the bulk material. Optoelectronic maps of ultrathin 1T-TaS have indicated the presence of non-equilibrium charge density wave phases within the hysteresis region of the nearly commensurate (NC) to commensurate (C) transition. We perform scanning tunneling microscopy on exfoliated ultrathin flakes of 1T-TaS within the NC-C hysteresis window, finding evidence that the observed non-equilibrium phases consist of intertwined, irregularly shaped NC-like and C-like domains. After applying lateral electrical signals to the sample we image changes in the geometric arrangement of the different regions. We use a phase separation model to explore the relationship between electronic inhomogeneity present in ultrathin 1T-TaS and its bulk resistivity. These results demonstrate the role of phase competition morphologies in determining the properties of 2D materials.
arXiv comment13 pages, 10 figures; supplementary material is appended to main text
References in corpus (19)
- Colossal Magnetoresistant Materials: The Key Role of Phase Separation
- Complexity in Strongly Correlated Electronic Systems
- Theory of Intertwined Orders in High Temperature Superconductors
- Gate-tunable Phase Transitions in 1T-TaS
- Ultrafast switching to a stable hidden topologically protected quantum state in an electronic crystal
- Memristive phase switching in two-dimensional crystals
- Orbital textures and charge density waves in transition metal dichalcogenides
- A metallic mosaic phase and the origin of Mott insulating state in 1T-TaS2
- Structure and Control of Charge Density Waves in Two-Dimensional 1T-TaS2
- Nanoscale manipulation of the Mott insulating state coupled to charge order in 1T-TaS2
- Fast non-thermal switching between macroscopic charge-ordered quantum states induced by charge injection
- Mottness versus unit-cell doubling as the driver of the insulating state in 1T-TaS2
- Ultrafast manipulation of mirror domain walls in a charge density wave
- Universality of pseudogap and emergent order in lightly doped Mott insulators
- Emergent Honeycomb Network of Topological Excitations in Correlated Charge Density Wave
- Possible strain induced Mott gap collapse in 1T-TaS
- Photocurrent Imaging of Multi-Memristive Charge Density Wave Switching in Two-Dimensional 1T-TaS2
- The electric pulses induced multi-resistance states in the hysteresis temperature range of 1T-TaS2 and 1T-TaS1.6Se0.4
- Percolative Mott insulator-metal transition in doped SrIrO