Temperature Evolution of Domains and Intradomain Chirality in 1T-TaS$_{2}$

Abstract

We use scanning tunneling microscopy to study the temperature evolution of the atomic-scale properties of the nearly-commensurate charge density wave (NC-CDW) state of the low-dimensional material, 1T-TaS$_2$. Our measurements at 203 K, 300 K, and 354 K, roughly spanning the temperature range of the NC-CDW state, show that while the average CDW periodicity is temperature independent, domaining and the local evolution of the CDW lattice within a domain is temperature dependent. Further, we characterize the temperature evolution of the displacement field associated with the recently-discovered intradomain chirality of the NC-CDW state by calculating the local rotation vector. Intradomain chirality throughout the NC-CDW phase is likely driven by a strong coupling of the CDW lattice to the atomic lattice.