Electron-transverse acoustic phonon couplings in three-dimensional pentatellurides

Abstract

Transverse acoustic (TA) phonon waves are analogous to electromagnetic waves and can carry a certain angular momentum. In this paper, we study the electron-TA phonon couplings in three-dimensional pentatellurides and explore the conditions under which the TA phonon condensation is stable. We analyze the Lindhard response function, phonon softening, mean-field parameters, and renormalized dispersions, on the basis of which the phase diagrams of the electron-phonon couplings in ZrTe$_5$ and HfTe$_5$ are calculated. The phase diagrams show that, if the chemical potential lies near the Weyl nodes, the TA phonon condensation will dominate and lead to the shear strain wave phase. We further reveal that when the wave vector of the particular phonon mode is smaller, the critical coupling strength will be weaker for the phonon condensation, which thus favors the condensation phase.