Conductivity anisotropy helps to reveal the microscopic structure of a density wave at imperfect nesting

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that conductivity anisotropy can differentiate microscopic structures of density waves in imperfectly nested Fermi surfaces, aiding the analysis of experimental data in layered organic metals.

Contribution

It introduces a method to distinguish between soliton-wall and ungapped Fermi-surface pocket structures using conductivity anisotropy measurements.

Findings

Conductivity anisotropy varies between the two microscopic structures.

The method can be applied to analyze experimental data in layered organic metals.

Results help identify the microscopic density-wave structure in specific compounds.

Abstract

Superconductivity or metallic state may coexist with density wave ordering at imperfect nesting of the Fermi surface. In addition to the macroscopic spatial phase separation, there are, at least, two possible microscopic structures of such coexistence: (i) the soliton-wall phase and (ii) the ungapped Fermi-surface pockets. We show that the conductivity anisotropy allows to distinguish between these two microscopic density-wave structures. The results obtained may help to analyze the experimental observations in layered organic metals (TMTSF)$_{2}$PF$_{6}$, (TMTSF)$_{2}$ClO$_{4}$, $\alpha $-(BEDT-TTF)$_{2}$KHg(SCN)$_{4}$ and in other compounds.