“Graphene-Like” Exfoliation of Quasi-2D Crystals of Titanium Ditelluride: A New Route to Charge Density Wave Materials

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe used a “graphene-like” mechanical exfoliation to obtain atomically thin films of TiTe2. The building blocks of titanium ditelluride are atomic tri-layers separated by the van der Waals gaps. The exfoliation procedure allows one to obtain the few-atom-thick films with strong confinement of charge carriers and phonons. We have verified the crystallinity of the exfoliated films and fabricated the back-gated field-effect devices. The current – voltage characteristics of the TiTe2 devices revealed strong non-linearity, which suggests the charge-density wave effects. The obtained results are important for the proposed application of TiTe2 for the charge-density wave devices and thermoelectric energy conversion.