Field induced hysteretic structural phase switching and possible CDW in Re-doped MoTe2

Aastha Vasdev; Suman Kamboj; Anshu Sirohi; Manasi Mandal; Sourav Marik; Ravi Prakash Singh; Goutam Sheet

doi:10.1088/1361-648X/abf883

Field induced hysteretic structural phase switching and possible CDW in Re-doped MoTe₂

J Phys Condens Matter. 2021 May 21;33(25). doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/abf883.

Authors

Aastha Vasdev¹, Suman Kamboj¹, Anshu Sirohi¹, Manasi Mandal², Sourav Marik², Ravi Prakash Singh², Goutam Sheet¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali, Sector 81, S. A. S. Nagar, Manauli, PO 140306, India.
² Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal, Bhopal, 462066, India.

PMID: 33857934
DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/abf883

Abstract

Novel electronic systems displaying exotic physical properties can be derived from complex topological materials through chemical doping. MoTe₂, the candidate type-II Weyl semimetal shows dramatically enhanced superconductivity up to 4.1 K upon Re doping in Mo sites. Based on bulk transport and local scanning tunnelling microscopy here we show that Re doping also leads to the emergence of a possible charge density wave phase in Re_0.2Mo_0.8Te₂. In addition, the tunnellingI-Vcharacteristics display non-linearity and hysteresis which is commensurate with a hysteresis observed in the change in tip-height (z) as a function of applied voltageV. The observations indicate an electric field induced hysteretic switching consistent with piezoelectricity and possible ferroelectricity.

Keywords: charge density waves; piezoelectricity; topological insulators.