Defect-Mediated Condensation of a Charge Density Wave
Hanno H. Weitering,
12
Joseph
M. Carpinelli,
12
Anatoli V. Melechko,
12
Jiandi Zhang,
3
Miroslaw Bartkowiak,
12
E.
Ward Plummer
12
Symmetry, dimensionality, and disorder play a pivotal
role in critical phenomena. The atomic imaging capabilities of the
scanning tunneling microscope were used to directly visualize the
interaction between charge density oscillations and lattice defects in
a two-dimensional charge density wave (CDW) system. Point
defects act as nucleation centers of the CDW, which, as the temperature
is lowered, results in the formation of pinned CDW domains that are
separated by atomically abrupt charge boundaries. Incomplete freezing
of substitutional disorder at low temperature indicates a novel
CDW-mediated hopping of pinning centers.
1 Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
2 Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA.
3 Department
of Physics, Florida International University, University Park,
Miami, FL 33199, USA.
