Metal-semiconductor transition and Luttinger-liquid behavior in quasi-one-dimensional BaVS3 studied by photoemission spectroscopy.

Abstract

The quasi-one-dimensional conductor ${\mathrm{BaVS}}_{3}$ exhibits successive phase transitions at \ensuremath{\sim}240 K (linear chains to zigzag chains), \ensuremath{\sim}70 K (metallic to semiconducting), and \ensuremath{\sim}35 K (paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic). We have made high-resolution ultraviolet-photoemission-spectroscopy (UPS), x-ray-photoemission-spectroscopy, electrical-resistivity, and magnetic-susceptibility measurements on ${\mathrm{BaVS}}_{3}$. UPS spectra near the Fermi level of the metallic phase exhibit a power-law dependence on the electron binding energy, indicating that conduction electrons in ${\mathrm{BaVS}}_{3}$ behave as a Luttinger liquid. The power-law exponent is large (\ensuremath{\sim}1), indicating that electron-electron interaction is long ranged and possibly that electron-phonon interaction is also important. The spectra exhibit gradual changes with temperature. In particular, a semiconducting gap starts to open well above the metal-to-semiconductor transition temperature and fully develops below it. We propose that the gradual orthorhombic distortion of the Jahn-Teller type below \ensuremath{\sim}240 K lowers one of the d levels, ${\mathit{d}}_{\mathit{x}\mathit{y}}$, and that below \ensuremath{\sim}70 K electrons are fully transferred to the ${\mathit{d}}_{\mathit{x}\mathit{y}}$ band. The ${\mathit{d}}_{\mathit{x}\mathit{y}}$ band then becomes half-filled, resulting in the opening of a Mott-Hubbard gap.