Mottness versus unit-cell doubling as the driver of the insulating state in 1T-TaS2

C. J. Butler (), M. Yoshida, T. Hanaguri () and Y. Iwasa
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C. J. Butler: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science
M. Yoshida: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science
T. Hanaguri: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science
Y. Iwasa: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract If a material with an odd number of electrons per unit-cell is insulating, Mott localisation may be invoked as an explanation. This is widely accepted for the layered compound 1T-TaS2, which has a low-temperature insulating phase comprising charge order clusters with 13 unpaired orbitals each. But if the stacking of layers doubles the unit-cell to include an even number of orbitals, the nature of the insulating state is ambiguous. Here, scanning tunnelling microscopy reveals two distinct terminations of the charge order in 1T-TaS2, the sign of such a double-layer stacking pattern. However, spectroscopy at both terminations allows us to disentangle unit-cell doubling effects and determine that Mott localisation alone can drive gap formation. We also observe the collapse of Mottness at an extrinsically re-stacked termination, demonstrating that the microscopic mechanism of insulator-metal transitions lies in degrees of freedom of inter-layer stacking.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16132-9

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