Radio-Frequency-Driven Reshaping of the Mesoscale Charge-Density-Wave Landscape in 1T-TaS2 Thin-Film Devices

TL;DR

Radio-frequency excitation can reshape the charge-density-wave landscape in 1T-TaS2 thin films, enabling control over collective electronic states and transport properties with potential applications in reconfigurable electronics.

Contribution

This work demonstrates RF-driven manipulation of charge-density-wave states and hysteresis in 1T-TaS2, combining experimental observations with theoretical modeling to reveal new control mechanisms.

Findings

RF excitation alters hysteretic current-voltage characteristics.

Enhanced coherence of CDW phonon modes under RF drive.

Simulations show RF anneals domain configurations and reorganizes discommensurations.

Abstract

Radio-frequency excitation directly reshapes the mesoscale charge-density-wave landscape in quasi-two-dimensional 1T-TaS2 thin films. Under combined RF and DC bias, the hysteretic current-voltage characteristics associated with the nearly commensurate-incommensurate transition are strongly altered, displaying RF-driven collapse, branching, and multiple step-like features that depend on frequency and drive amplitude. In-situ Raman measurements show enhanced intensity and linewidth narrowing of low-frequency CDW phonon modes, consistent with reduced dephasing and increased coherence of the periodic lattice distortion under RF drive. This behavior is captured by combining an overdamped time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau description of the commensurate CDW with a morphology-informed percolative resistor-capacitor transport model. The simulations indicate that oscillatory driving anneals frustrated domain configurations, reduces domain-wall density, and reorganizes the discommensuration network, while the transport model reproduces the resulting hysteresis, avalanche-like pathways, and RF-induced conductance steps. RF driving therefore provides an effective route for controlling collective electron-phonon order and accessing metastable transport states in 1T-TaS2, with implications for reconfigurable RF electronics, memory, and unconventional computing based on correlated materials.