PROGRAM

Thursday 14 April; Leiden, Jasper van Wezel "Chiral Charge Density Waves"

Date:

 

Lorentz Seminar
Location: room 276, Oort building
Time: 11:30 - 12:30

abstract:
It is well known that materials with charge order may spontaneously
break inversion symmetry. This effect underlies for example the
emergence of ferroelectricity in SnTe and the dramatic hysteresis
effects in NbSe3. Only very recently however, has it been realized
that this type of charge order may also result in a chiral state [1].
The inversion symmetry is then broken with an axial vector instead of
a polar one.
In this seminar I will discuss the mechanism by which such chiral
charge density waves may be formed. I will show that chirality may be
expected to be a generic property of certain types of charge density
waves, and point out the prerequisites for their occurrence.