Nodal-line semimetal HMTSF-TCNQ: Anomalous orbital diamagnetism and charge density wave

This study investigates the electronic states and physical quantities of an organic charge-transfer complex HMTSF-TCNQ, which undergoes a charge-density-wave (CDW) phase transition at temperature $T_c\simeq 30$ K. A first-principles calculation is utilized to determine that the normal state is a topological semimetal with open nodal lines. Besed on the first-principles calculation, we develop a tight-binding model to investigate the electronic state in detail. Below $T_c$, the CDW phase is examined in the tight-binding scheme using the mean-field approximation. It is shown that the open nodal lines are deformed into closed ones, and their shapes are sensitive to the order parameter. Using this tight-binding model, we theoretically evaluate the temperature dependencies of two physical quantities: the spin-lattice relaxation time $T_1$ and the orbital magnetic susceptibility. In particular, an anomalous plateau is obtained at low temperatures in the orbital diamagnetism. We presume that this anomalous plateau originates owing to the conflict between the interband diamagnetism, impurity scattering, and the nodal line deformation. We also conduct an experiment to investigate the orbital magnetism, and the results are in excellent quantitative agreement with the theory.