Dramatic plasmon response to the charge-density-wave gap development in 1T-TiSe2

1T−TiSe2 is one of the most studied charge density wave (CDW) systems, not only because of its peculiar properties related to the CDW transition, but also due to its status as a promising candidate of exciton insulator signaled by the proposed plasmon softening at the CDW wave vector. Using high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy, we report a systematic study of the temperature-dependent plasmon behaviors of 1T−TiSe2. We unambiguously resolve the plasmon from phonon modes, revealing the existence of Landau damping to the plasmon at finite momentums, which does not support the plasmon softening picture for exciton condensation. Moreover, we discover that the plasmon lifetime at zero momentum responds dramatically to the band gap evolution associated with the CDW transition. The interband transitions near the Fermi energy in the normal phase are demonstrated to serve as a strong damping channel of plasmons, while such a channel in the CDW phase is suppressed due to the CDW gap opening, which results in the dramatic tunability of the plasmon in semimetals or small-gap semiconductors.
This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No.2021YFA1400200 and No.2017YFA0303600), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.11874404andNo.11974399), and the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No.XDB33000000). V.M.S. acknowledges financial support by Grant No .PID2019105488GB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/. X.Z. was partially supported by the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences.