# Evolution of the charge density wave superstructure in ${\mathrm{ZrTe}}_{3}$ under pressure

• Hoesch, Moritz Diamond Light Source, Harwell Campus, Didcot, United Kingdom
• Garbarino, Gaston European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble, France
• Battaglia, Corsin Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Laboratory Materials for Energy Conversion, Dübendorf, Switzerland
01.03.2016
Published in:
• Physical Review B. - 2016, vol. 93, no. 12, p. 125102
English The material ZrTe3 is a well-known example of an incommensurate periodic lattice distortion (PLD) at low temperatures due to a charge density wave (CDW). Previous studies have found a sharp boundary as a function of pressure between CDW below 5 GPa and bulk superconductivity above this value. We present a study of low-temperature-high-pressure single crystal x-ray diffraction along with ab initio density functional theory calculations. The modulation vector qCDW is found to change smoothly with pressure until the PLD is lost. Fermi surface calculations reproduce these changes, but neither these nor the experimental crystal lattice structure show a particular step change at 5 GPa, thus leading to the conclusion that the CDW is lost accidentally by tipping the balance of CDW formation in the Fermi surface nesting that stabilizes it.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
Département de Physique
Language
• English
Classification
Physics