Scanning Tunneling Microscopy of Hf-doped ZrTe3

ZrTe3 is a quasi-one-dimensional material which hosts a CDW state below ~63 K and a superconducting state below ~2 K. While the crystal structure is quasi-two-dimensional, the in-plane electronic properties are notably anisotropic, with higher electrical conductivity along the a crystal axis. The CDW state is believed driven primarily by Fermi surface nesting of near parallel Fermi surface sheets along the a* direction. In this work, we present our scanning tunneling microscopy measurements on Hf-doped ZrTe3 both above and below the CDW transition, characterizing properties of the CDW state as well as atomically-resolved defects.

*This work is supported by NSF Grant No. DMR-1904918.