Giant Kohn anomaly and the phase transition in charge density wave ZrTe3.
A strong Kohn anomaly in ZrTe3 is identified in the mostly transverse acoustic phonon branch along the modulation vector q_{P} with polarization along the a;{*} direction. This soft mode freezes to zero frequency at the transition temperature T_{P}, and the temperature dependence of the frequency is strongly affected by fluctuation effects. Diffuse x-ray scattering of the incommensurate superstructure shows a power-law scaling of the intensity and the correlation length that is compatible with an order parameter of dimension n=2.
Hoesch
Moritz
M
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, 38043 Grenoble Cedex, France.
Bosak
Alexey
A
Chernyshov
Dmitry
D
Berger
Helmuth
H
Krisch
Michael
M