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Phys. Rev. B 81, 081101(R) (2010) [4 pages]

Raman scattering evidence for a cascade evolution of the charge-density-wave collective amplitude mode

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M. Lavagnini1, H.-M. Eiter2, L. Tassini2, B. Muschler2, R. Hackl2, R. Monnier1, J.-H. Chu3, I. R. Fisher3, and L. Degiorgi1
1Laboratorium für Festkörperphysik, ETH-Zürich, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland
2Walther-Meissner-Institut, Bayerische-Akademie der Wissenschaften, D-85748 Garching, Germany
3Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4045, USA and Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA

Received 15 January 2010; published 5 February 2010

The two-dimensional rare-earth tritellurides undergo a unidirectional charge-density-wave (CDW) transition at high temperature and, for the heaviest members of the series, a bidirectional one at low temperature. Raman scattering experiments as a function of temperature on DyTe3 and on LaTe3 at 6 GPa provide a clear-cut evidence for the emergence of the respective collective CDW amplitude excitations. In the unidirectional CDW phase, we discover that the amplitude mode develops as a succession of two mean-field BCS-like transitions with different critical temperatures, which we associate with the presence of two adjacent Te planes in the structure.

© 2010 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.81.081101
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevB.81.081101
PACS:
71.45.Lr, 62.50.-p, 78.30.-j
 
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