Charge transfer and multiple density waves in the rare earth tellurides

Abstract

We use high-resolution synchrotron x-ray diffraction to uncover a second, low-temperature, charge density wave (CDW) in TbTe_3. Its T_(c2) = 41.0 +/- 0.4 K is the lowest discovered so far in the rare earth telluride series. The CDW wave vectors of the high temperature and low temperature states differ significantly and evolve in opposite directions with temperature, indicating that the two nested Fermi surfaces are separated and the CDWs coexist independently. Both the in-plane and out-of-plane correlation lengths are robust, implying that the density waves on different Te layers are well coupled through the TbTe layers. Finally, we rule out any low-temperature CDW in GdTe_3 for temperatures above 8 K, an energy scale sufficiently low to make pressure tuning of incipient CDW order a realistic possibility.