Collective pinning dynamics of charge-density waves in 1T-TaS2

Using high-resolution x-ray scattering and x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS), we have investigated the structure and dynamics of charge density wave (CDW) dynamics in pure and titanium-doped 1T-TaS2. Time-averaged scattering measurements of pure and doped samples reveal that 1T-TaS2 is a weakly pinned two-dimensional CDW system. Using XPCS, we find that after long anneals the CDW domain structure in the incommensurate phase is pinned and stable against spontaneous fluctuations thus rejecting phasons as spontaneous excitations in higher-dimensional CDW systems. By examining the dynamics of deeply quenched samples upon heating, we find that metastable CDW configurations collectively rearrange in a nonequilibrium manner. For nominally pure samples, we determine an energy barrier to relaxation of 4600 K that is considerably greater than that found for lower-dimensional CDWs.