title: Mott phase at the surface of 1T-TaSe2 observed by scanning tunneling microscopy.
abstract: In this Letter we report the observation, by scanning tunneling microscopy, of a Mott metal to insulator transition at the surface of 1T-TaSe2. Our spectroscopic data compare considerably well with previous angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements and confirm the presence of a large hysteresis related to a first order process. The local character of the tunneling spectroscopy technique allows a direct visualization of the surface symmetry and provides spectroscopic measurements on the defect-free region of the sample. It follows that the electronic localization is driven purely by the enhancement of the charge density wave amplitude which drives a bandwidth controlled metal-insulator transition.
authors.affiliation: CNR Istituto di Struttura della Materia, Via Fosso del Cavaliere, 100, 00133 Roma Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Colonna
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ronci
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cricenti
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Perfetti
authors.forename: Helmuth
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grioni