Intercalation of vacuum deposited silver into 1T-TaS2 and its influence on charge density waves

Abstract

It is shown that silver vapour deposited onto (00.1) faces of 1T-TaS2 crystals at 300–500 K starts to intercalate into van der Waals gaps of the host crystal already during the deposition process, even at room temperature deposition. This is demonstrated by superstructure reflections in electron diffraction patterns. The intercalated silver also lowers the transition temperatures among various 1T-TaS2 CDW phases. These effects show that the octahedral coordination of Ta atoms changes into the trigonal prismatic one. In crystals with silver deposited above 500 K, where the transformation of 1T-TaS2 into the stable 2Ha form takes place, the observed superstructures are in agreement with the literature results for electrochemically silver intercalated 2Ha-TaS2 crystals.