Anomalous metallic state in the vicinity of Metal to Valence Bond Solid insulator transition in LiVS2

We investigate LiVS2 and LiVSe2 with a triangular lattice as itinerant analogues of LiVO2, known for the formation of valence bond solid (VBS) state out of S = 1 frustrated magnet. LiVS2, which is located at the border between a metal and a correlated insulator, shows a first ordered transition from a paramagnetic metal to a VBS insulator at Tc ~ 305 K upon cooling. The presence of VBS state in the close vicinity of insulator-metal transition may suggest the importance of itinerancy in the formation of VBS state. We argue that the high temperature metallic phase of LiVS2 has a pseudo-gap, likely originating from the VBS fluctuation. LiVSe2 was found to be a paramagnetic metal down to 2 K.