NbSe3: Effect of Uniaxial Stress on the Threshold Field and Fermiology

TL;DR

This study investigates how uniaxial stress influences the threshold field and Fermi surface properties of NbSe3, revealing critical behavior and a relationship between CDW pinning and electronic structure.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of uniaxial stress effects on the threshold field and Fermiology in NbSe3, establishing a quantitative relationship and critical behavior.

Findings

Threshold field ET follows a critical power law with strain.

CDW transition temperature decreases linearly with strain.

Fermi surface extremal area reduces with increasing strain.

Abstract

We have measured the effect of uniaxial stress on the threshold field ET for the motion of the upper CDW in NbSe3. ET exhibits a critical behavior, ET ~ (1 - e/ec)^g, wher e is the strain, and ec is about 2.6% and g ~ 1.2. This ecpression remains valid over more than two decades of ET, up to the highest fields of about 1.5keV/m. Neither g nor ec is very sensitive to the impurity concentraction. The CDW transition temperature Tp decreases linearly with e at a rate dTp/de = -10K/%, and it does not show any anomaly near ec. Shubnikov de-Haas measurements show that the extremal area of the Fermi surface decreases with increasing strain. The results suggest that there is an intimate relationship between pinning of the upper CDW and the Fermiology of NbSe3.