Chirality and Orbital Order in Charge Density Waves

Abstract

We show that the recently observed chirality in the charge ordered phase of TiSe2 can be understood as a form of orbital ordering. The microscopic mechanism driving the transition between the novel chiral state and the non-chiral charge density wave is discussed, and shown to be of a general form, thus allowing for a broad class of materials to display this type of orbitally ordered chiral charge density wave.