title: Giant Kohn anomaly and the phase transition in charge density wave ZrTe3.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, 38043 Grenoble Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Moritz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hoesch
authors.forename: Alexey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bosak
authors.forename: Dmitry
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chernyshov
authors.forename: Helmuth
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krisch