Atomic-Scale Strain Manipulation of a Charge Density Wave

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to manipulate charge density waves at the atomic scale using strain engineering in 2H-NbSe2, revealing how small strains can dramatically alter CDW properties and providing a tool for designing novel electronic states.

Contribution

It introduces a simple strain application technique compatible with STM/S to control and study CDWs in quantum materials, advancing understanding of their microscopic formation mechanisms.

Findings

Small strain-induced changes significantly alter CDW wave vector and geometry.

Strain affects electronic band structure and phonon dispersion.

Method enables engineering of electronic states via local lattice symmetry breaking.

Abstract

A charge density wave (CDW) is one of the fundamental instabilities of the Fermi surface occurring in a wide range of quantum materials. In dimensions higher than one, where Fermi surface nesting can play only a limited role, the selection of the particular wave vector and geometry of an emerging CDW should in principle be susceptible to controllable manipulation. In this work, we implement a simple method for straining materials compatible with low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/S), and use it to strain-engineer new CDWs in 2H-NbSe2. Our STM/S measurements combined with theory reveal how small strain-induced changes in the electronic band structure and phonon dispersion lead to dramatic changes in the CDW ordering wave vector and geometry. Our work unveils the microscopic mechanism of a CDW formation in this system, and can serve as a general tool compatible with a range of spectroscopic techniques to engineer novel electronic states in any material where local strain or lattice symmetry breaking plays a role.