Direct Observation of Mono-, Bi-, and Tri-layer Charge Density Waves in 1T-TaS₂ by Transmission Electron Microscopy without a Substrate

Charge-density-waves (CDW) which occur mainly in low-dimensional systems have a macroscopic wave function similar to superfluids and superconductors. Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transition is observed in superfluids and superconductors, but the presence of KT transition in ultra-thin CDW systems has been an open problem. We report the direct real-space observation of CDWs with new order states in mono-, bi-, and tri-layer 1T-TaS_2 crystal by using a low voltage scanning-transmission-electron-microscope (STEM) without a substrate. This method is ideal to observe local atomic structures and possible defects. We clearly observed that the mono-layer crystal has a new triclinic stripe CDW order without the triple q condition q_1 + q_2 + q_3 = 0. A strong electron-phonon interaction gives rise to new crevasse (line) type defects instead of disclination (point) type defects due to the KT transition. These results reaffirm the importance of the electron-phonon interaction in mono-layer nanophysics.