Bands, bonds, and charge-density waves in the NbSe3family of compounds

Abstract

Through detailed examination of the crystal structure and bonding conditions in the trichalcogenides, it has been possible to gain a deeper understanding of the band structure of these complex materials, and with this of their unusual electronic behavior. The character of the observed semimetallicity in Ta${\mathrm{Se}}_3$ and Nb${\mathrm{Se}}_3$ is much clarified. Each material in the group-V family is seen to achieve a very individually tailored band structure, enfolding the various structural and energy-level adjustments. The nonuniformity and the molecularization of these structures contrasts strongly with the dichalcogenide behavior. The structural, if not the electronic, dimensionality of the group-V trichalcogenides remains closer to two than to one. It is found that the periodic structural distortions developed by Nb${\mathrm{Se}}_3$ are probably more suited to a metal-metal bonding description than to the traditional Fermi surface determined instability of a charge-density wave. The field-induced sliding of these distortions can then be described in terms of cooperative bond flipping through a discommensurate superlattice. We examine in crystal chemical terms why this motion is so unusually weakly pinned to defects and impurities in Nb${\mathrm{Se}}_3$. In fact, the investigation shows that it will be very hard to find a material better suited to the realization of this phenomenon.