THE EFFECTS OF TRANSITION-METAL SUBSTITUTIONS IN THE NBTE4-TATE4 CHARGE-DENSITY WAVE SYSTEM

At room temperature, the structures of TaTe4 and NbTe4 are modulated by the presence of a charge-density wave which in the former compound is commensurate with the parent lattice and in the latter incommensurate. In addition, a series of incommensurate mixed crystals (Ta1-xNbx)Te4 (0 less-than-or-equal-to x less-than-or-equal-to 1) exist in which the modulation wavevector increases as a function of x. In this paper, we report the occurrence of a systematic variation in the period of the charge-density wave upon substitution of the transition metal elements Ti, Zr or V for either Nb or Ta. Electron diffraction experiments reveal that, in TaTe4, Substitutions Of Group 4 elements Ti and Zr result in an incommensurate modulation with a decrease in the modulation wavevector q. In NbTe4, substitutions of Ti or Zr also reduce q, in this case towards the commensurate value, and, at sufficiently high concentrations, a commensurate phase is stabilized at room temperature. Vanadium substitutions in NbTe4 result in a slight increase in q. Satellite dark-field images reveal the presence of defects in the modulation structures of the doped crystals. The above results are discussed in terms of the factors which determine the charge-density wave periodicity in the NbTe4-TaTe4 system.