Local atomic structure and discommensurations in the charge density wave of CeTe3

Abstract

The local structure of CeTe3 in the incommensurate charge density wave (IC-CDW) state has been obtained using atomic pair distribution function (PDF) analysis of x-ray diffraction data. Local atomic distortions in the Te-nets due to the CDW are larger than observed crystallographically, resulting in distinct short and long Te-Te bonds. Observation of different distortion amplitudes in the local and average structures are explained by the discommensurated nature of the CDW since the PDF is sensitive to the local displacements within the commensurate regions whereas the crystallographic result averages over many discommensurated domains. The result is supported by STM data. This is the first quantitative local structural study within the commensurate domains in an IC-CDW system.

4 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (2)

• A `checkerboard' electronic crystal state in lightly hole-doped Ca_{2-x}Na_{x}CuO_{2}Cl_{2}
• Weak charge-lattice coupling requires reinterpretation of stripes of charge order in La1-xCaxMnO3

Cited by in corpus (4)

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• STM Studies of TbTe3: Evidence for a fully Incommensurate Charge Density Wave
• Scanning tunneling microscopy study of the CeTe3 charge density wave
• De Haas-van Alphen oscillations in the charge-density wave compound lanthanum tritelluride (LaTe_3)