Anomalous Thermal Transport Reveals Weak First-Order Melting of Charge Density Waves in 2H-TaSe2

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Huang, Han, Dai, Jinghang, Christiansen-Salameh, Joyce, Kim, Jiyoung, Kielar, Samuel, Ma, Desheng, Schinitzer, Noah, Ni, Danrui, Alvarez, Gustavo, Li, Chen, Slebodnick, Carla, Medina, Mario, Azhar, Bilal, Alatas, Ahmet, Cava, Robert, Muller, David, Tian, Zhiting
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Huang, Han
Dai, Jinghang
Christiansen-Salameh, Joyce
Kim, Jiyoung
Kielar, Samuel
Ma, Desheng
Schinitzer, Noah
Ni, Danrui
Alvarez, Gustavo
Li, Chen
Slebodnick, Carla
Medina, Mario
Azhar, Bilal
Alatas, Ahmet
Cava, Robert
Muller, David
Tian, Zhiting
author_facet Huang, Han
Dai, Jinghang
Christiansen-Salameh, Joyce
Kim, Jiyoung
Kielar, Samuel
Ma, Desheng
Schinitzer, Noah
Ni, Danrui
Alvarez, Gustavo
Li, Chen
Slebodnick, Carla
Medina, Mario
Azhar, Bilal
Alatas, Ahmet
Cava, Robert
Muller, David
Tian, Zhiting
contents How ordered phases melt in low-dimensional quantum materials remain difficult to resolve because the relevant fluctuations are dynamic and charge neutral. In this work, we show that thermal transport provides a sensitive probe of these hidden fluctuations in the layered transition metal dichalcogenide 2H-TaSe2. We observe a striking V-shaped temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity that cannot be explained by conventional phonon-phonon scattering. Instead, it originates from scattering by persistent local charge-density-wave (CDW) correlations, consistent with our phenomenological model linking thermal transport to spatial CDW fluctuation. Electron diffraction reveals short-range periodic lattice distortions persisting to at least 300 K, while X-ray diffraction shows thermal hysteresis of the CDW wavevector. Together, these results reveal a dislocation- and fluctuation-driven weak first-order melting of the CDW state.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_15915
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Anomalous Thermal Transport Reveals Weak First-Order Melting of Charge Density Waves in 2H-TaSe2
Huang, Han
Dai, Jinghang
Christiansen-Salameh, Joyce
Kim, Jiyoung
Kielar, Samuel
Ma, Desheng
Schinitzer, Noah
Ni, Danrui
Alvarez, Gustavo
Li, Chen
Slebodnick, Carla
Medina, Mario
Azhar, Bilal
Alatas, Ahmet
Cava, Robert
Muller, David
Tian, Zhiting
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Materials Science
How ordered phases melt in low-dimensional quantum materials remain difficult to resolve because the relevant fluctuations are dynamic and charge neutral. In this work, we show that thermal transport provides a sensitive probe of these hidden fluctuations in the layered transition metal dichalcogenide 2H-TaSe2. We observe a striking V-shaped temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity that cannot be explained by conventional phonon-phonon scattering. Instead, it originates from scattering by persistent local charge-density-wave (CDW) correlations, consistent with our phenomenological model linking thermal transport to spatial CDW fluctuation. Electron diffraction reveals short-range periodic lattice distortions persisting to at least 300 K, while X-ray diffraction shows thermal hysteresis of the CDW wavevector. Together, these results reveal a dislocation- and fluctuation-driven weak first-order melting of the CDW state.
title Anomalous Thermal Transport Reveals Weak First-Order Melting of Charge Density Waves in 2H-TaSe2
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.15915