2024/12/30 by Anisha G. Singh, Matthew Krogstad, Singh, Anisha G. +21 · 1 citation
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Iron-based superconductors research #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Organic and Molecular Conductors Research #Rare-earth and actinide compounds #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2412.20706
openalex publication_date 2024/12/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We explore, through a combination of x-ray diffraction and elastoresistivity measurements, the effect of disorder on the strain-tuned charge density wave and associated multicriticality in PdxErTe3 (x = 0, 0.01, 0.02 and 0.026). We focus particularly on the behavior near the strain-tuned bicritical point that occurs in pristine ErTe3 (x=0). Our study reveals that while Pd intercalation somewhat broadens the signatures of the CDW phase transitions, the line of first-order transitions at which the CDW reorients as a function of applied strain persists in the presence of disorder and still seemingly terminates at a critical point. The critical point occurs at a lower temperature and a lower strain compared to pristine ErTe3. Similarly, the nematic elastoresistance of PdxErTe3, though suppressed in magnitude and broadened relative to that of ErTe3, has a markedly more symmetric response around the critical point. These observations point to disorder driving a reduction in the system's electronic orthorhombicity even while the material remains irrevocably orthorhombic due to the presence of a glide plane in the crystal structure. Disorder, it would appear, reinforces the emergence of a "pseudo-tetragonal" electronic response in this fundamentally orthorhombic material.