Discovery of smectic charge and pair-density-wave orders in topological monolayer 1T$^\prime$-MoTe$_2$

作者：Li-Xuan Wei, Pengcheng Xiao, Fangsen Li, Li Wang, Bo-Yuan Deng, Fang-Jun Cheng, Fawei Zheng, Ning Hao, Ping Zhang, Xu-Cun Ma, Qi‐Kun Xue, Can‐Li Song · 发表于：arXiv (Cornell University) · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.48550/arxiv.2308.11101 · 被引用次数：1 · 研究领域：Topological Materials and Phenomena、Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates

Electronic liquid-crystal phases are observed in numerous strongly-correlated systems including high-temperature superconductors. However, identifying these exotic phases and understanding their interplay with superconductivity in topological materials remain challenging. Here we employ a cryogenic scanning tunneling microscopy to discover a smectic (stripe) charge order (CO) and a primary pair-density-wave (PDW) in topological monolayer 1T$^\prime$-MoTe$_2$. The two orders are spatially modulated unidirectionally at the same wavevector, but have a marked spatial phase difference of about 2$π$/5. Importantly, the primary PDW state features a two-gap superconductivity below the transition temperature of 6.0 K and induces another unique particle-hole-symmetric CO at twice the PDW wavevector. Combining these results and our density functional calculations, we reveal that the two smectic orders are primarily driven by nesting behaviors between electron and hole pockets. Our findings establish monolayer 1T$^\prime$-MoTe$_2$ as a topological paradigm for exploring electronic smecticity, which intertwines with multiple preexisting symmetry-breaking states.