Abstract
is widely believed to host a Mott metal-insulator transition in the charge density wave (CDW) phase according to the spectroscopic observation of a band gap that extends across all momentum space. Previous investigations inferred that the occurrence of the Mott phase is limited to the surface only of bulk specimens, but recent analysis on thin samples revealed that the Mott-like behavior, observed in the monolayer, is rapidly suppressed with increasing thickness. Here, we report combined time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of . Our experimental results confirm the existence of a state above , previously ascribed to the upper Hubbard band, and an overall band gap of at . However, supported by density functional theory calculations, we demonstrate that the origin of this state and the gap rests on band structure modifications induced by the CDW phase alone, without the need for Mott correlation effects.
- Received 10 October 2022
- Revised 29 December 2022
- Accepted 2 March 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.156401
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