Abstract
We discovered the chirality of charge-density waves (CDW) in by using STM and time-domain optical polarimetry. We found that the CDW intensity becomes , where () is the amplitude of the tunneling current contributed by the CDWs. There were two states, in which the three intensity peaks of the CDW decrease clockwise and anticlockwise. The chirality in CDW results in the threefold symmetry breaking. Macroscopically, twofold symmetry was indeed observed in optical measurement. We propose the new generalized CDW chirality , where are the CDW vectors, which is independent of the symmetry of components. The nonzero —the triple- vectors do not exist in an identical plane in the reciprocal space—should induce a real-space chirality in CDW system.
- Received 10 January 2010
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.176401
© 2010 The American Physical Society
Viewpoint
Chiral symmetry breaking and charge order
Published 18 October 2010
When electronic instabilities give rise to three coexisting density waves, interference between them may lock into a state with helicity.
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