An analytical molecular orbital approach in tetrathiafulvalene tetracyanoquinodimethane (TTF-TCNQ)

In low-dimensional molecular crystals exhibiting the Peierls instability, intercolumnar interactions play an important role in electrical conduction. In this work, we propose an efficient method based on molecular orbital theory for studying the Peierls instability in molecular crystals composed of mixed-valence complexes. A perturbational approach to general N-merized systems is incorporated and applied to tetrathiafulvalene tetracyanoquinodimethane (TTF-TCNQ) crystals. From the results of the calculations, a mixed state of several commensurate distortions is proposed as another aspect of the incommensurate distortion in TTF-TCNQ under atmospheric pressure, and TTF+0.5–TCNQ−0.5 crystal is found to be expected as an electronic conductor under high pressure.