# Theoretical Modeling of the Non-equilibrium Amorphous State in 1T-TaS$_2$

## TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical model for the amorphous metastable state in 1T-TaS$_2$, using classical interacting polarons on a 2D lattice, revealing a frustrated Coulomb system without an order-disorder transition.

## Contribution

It introduces a classical polaron model to describe the amorphous state in 1T-TaS$_2$, expanding on existing theories and providing insights into its frustrated Coulomb nature.

## Key findings

- The amorphous state can be modeled as a frustrated Coulomb system.
- No order-disorder phase transition occurs in this state.
- The model aligns with experimental observations of the amorphous phase.

## Abstract

1T-TaS$_2$ is known for it's remarkably complex phase diagram and it's unique long-lived metastable hidden (H) state. Recently, a novel metastable state has been discovered using higher fluences for photoexcitation than in the case of the H state. The state has been dubbed as amorphous (A) due to it's similarity to glass. Expanding on the work of Brazovskii and Karpov, we show that the A state can be successfully modelled with classical interacting polarons on a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice. We have found that the polaron configuration of the A state corresponds to a frustrated screened Coulomb system, where there is no order-disorder phase transition.