Charge density wave transitions in mechanically-exfoliated NbSe3 devices

Abstract

We studied charge density wave (CDW) transitions in NbSe3 devices with thicknesses t from 20 to 170 nm, fabricated by the mechanical exfoliation technique. NbSe3 exhibits two CDW transitions: one is the linear nesting (CDW1) below K and the other is the diagonal nesting (CDW2) below K. For both the transitions, clear resistivity changes were observed down to t = 20 nm, indicating that the CDW states are robust even for the thin NbSe3 devices. The result also suggests that surface acoustic waves could be useful to modulate the CDW in the NbSe3 devices.