Discovery of a Stripe Phase in an Elemental Solid

Maksim Litskevich; Md Shafayat Hossain; Yang Fu; Hu Miao; Yuxiao Jiang; Guangming Cheng; Pengcheng Chen; Qi Zhang; Zi Jia Cheng; Raul Acevedo-Esteves; Christie Nelson; Haozhe Wang; Jose L. Gonzalez Jimenez; Brian Casas; Xiaoxiong Liu; Stepan S. Tsirkin; Kouta Dagnino; Songbo Zhang; Chia Hsiu Hsu; Sen Shao; Shaogang Xu; Tyler A. Cochran; Xian P. Yang; Hu Xu; Jiaxin Yin; Yaroslav A. Gerasimenko; Weiwei Xie; Nan Yao; Luis Balicas; Guoqing Chang; Titus Neupert; Hechang Lei; M. Zahid Hasan

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c01695

Discovery of a Stripe Phase in an Elemental Solid

Maksim Litskevich
, Md Shafayat Hossain
, Yang Fu
, Hu Miao
, Yuxiao Jiang
, Guangming Cheng
, Pengcheng Chen
, Qi Zhang
, Zi Jia Cheng
, Raul Acevedo-Esteves
, Christie Nelson
, Haozhe Wang
, Jose L. Gonzalez Jimenez
, Brian Casas
, Xiaoxiong Liu
, Stepan S. Tsirkin
, Kouta Dagnino
, Songbo Zhang
, Chia Hsiu Hsu
, Sen Shao

Shaogang Xu, Tyler A. Cochran, Xian P. Yang, Hu Xu, Jiaxin Yin, Yaroslav A. Gerasimenko, Weiwei Xie, Nan Yao, Luis Balicas, Guoqing Chang, Titus Neupert, Hechang Lei, M. Zahid Hasan

Quantum Heterostructures

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Translational symmetry breaking is foundational to condensed matter physics because it is associated with crystal formation. At much lower energy scales, the breaking of crystalline translational symmetry can be driven by electronic, rather than ionic, degrees of freedom and may give rise to stripe order, a unidirectional ordered state. Such symmetry breaking has been seen in two-dimensional and strongly correlated systems. Here, for the first time, we report the observation of stripe order in an elemental solid, tellurium. Through topographic and spectroscopic imaging, we discover a commensurate 4 × 1 stripe phase. Surprisingly, this exotic order is so robust that it survives close to room temperature. Notably, our diffraction experiments confirm the bulk nature of the stripe order, showing the minuteness of potential lattice distortion associated with the order. Our discovery of the stripe order in tellurium opens new windows to understanding the spontaneous symmetry breaking in elemental solids.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	10386-10394
Number of pages	9
Journal	Nano Letters
Volume	25
Issue number	26
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c01695
State	Published - Jul 2 2025

Funding

We are grateful to P. Padmanabhan for helpful discussions.M.Z.H.’s group at Princeton University acknowledges primary support from the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, under the Basic Energy Sciences (DOE-BES) programme (Grant No. DOE/BES DE-FG-02- 05ER46200) for the advanced spectroscopic measurements and theoretical including ARPES and the National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, the Quantum Science Center and Princeton University; ARPES, STM and transport instrumentation support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (Grant No. GBMF9461)and Princeton University; and support from the US DOE under the Basic Energy Sciences (DOE-BES) programme (Grant No. DOE/BES DE-FG-02- 05ER46200) for the theoretical work and extensive sample characterization. J.L.G.J., H.W., and W.X. were supported by the Beckman Young Investigator award. H.L. acknowledges support from the National Key R&D Program of China (Grants 2023YFA1406500 and 2022YFA1403800) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 12274459). S.S.T. acknowledges funding by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 through Grant PID2021-129035NB-I00 and the European Union (H2020-MSCA-COFUND-2020-101034228-WOLFRAM2). T.N. acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation through a Consolidator Grant (iTQC, TMCG-2_213805). L.B. is supported by DOE-BES through the award DE-SC0002613. The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory acknowledges support from the US-NSF Cooperative agreement Grant number DMR-DMR-2128556 and the state of Florida. The authors acknowledge the use of Princeton’s Imaging and Analysis Center, which is partially supported by the Princeton Center for Complex Materials, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-MRSEC program (DMR-2011750). Y. G. has been supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) through Project-ID 314695032─SFB 1277. Work at Nanyang Technological University was supported by the National Research Foundation, Singapore, under its Fellowship Award (NRF-NRFF13-2021-0010), the Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) Academic Research Fund Tier 3 grant (MOE-MOET32023-0003), and the Nanyang Assistant Professorship grant (NTU-SUG).

Keywords

X-ray diffraction
charge order
chiral crystals
phase transitions
scanning tunneling microscopy
semiconductors

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Litskevich, M., Hossain, M. S., Fu, Y., Miao, H., Jiang, Y., Cheng, G., Chen, P., Zhang, Q., Cheng, Z. J., Acevedo-Esteves, R., Nelson, C., Wang, H., Gonzalez Jimenez, J. L., Casas, B., Liu, X., Tsirkin, S. S., Dagnino, K., Zhang, S., Hsu, C. H., ... Hasan, M. Z. (2025). Discovery of a Stripe Phase in an Elemental Solid. Nano Letters, 25(26), 10386-10394. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c01695

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title = "Discovery of a Stripe Phase in an Elemental Solid",

abstract = "Translational symmetry breaking is foundational to condensed matter physics because it is associated with crystal formation. At much lower energy scales, the breaking of crystalline translational symmetry can be driven by electronic, rather than ionic, degrees of freedom and may give rise to stripe order, a unidirectional ordered state. Such symmetry breaking has been seen in two-dimensional and strongly correlated systems. Here, for the first time, we report the observation of stripe order in an elemental solid, tellurium. Through topographic and spectroscopic imaging, we discover a commensurate 4 × 1 stripe phase. Surprisingly, this exotic order is so robust that it survives close to room temperature. Notably, our diffraction experiments confirm the bulk nature of the stripe order, showing the minuteness of potential lattice distortion associated with the order. Our discovery of the stripe order in tellurium opens new windows to understanding the spontaneous symmetry breaking in elemental solids.",

keywords = "X-ray diffraction, charge order, chiral crystals, phase transitions, scanning tunneling microscopy, semiconductors",

author = "Maksim Litskevich and Hossain, \{Md Shafayat\} and Yang Fu and Hu Miao and Yuxiao Jiang and Guangming Cheng and Pengcheng Chen and Qi Zhang and Cheng, \{Zi Jia\} and Raul Acevedo-Esteves and Christie Nelson and Haozhe Wang and \{Gonzalez Jimenez\}, \{Jose L.\} and Brian Casas and Xiaoxiong Liu and Tsirkin, \{Stepan S.\} and Kouta Dagnino and Songbo Zhang and Hsu, \{Chia Hsiu\} and Sen Shao and Shaogang Xu and Cochran, \{Tyler A.\} and Yang, \{Xian P.\} and Hu Xu and Jiaxin Yin and Gerasimenko, \{Yaroslav A.\} and Weiwei Xie and Nan Yao and Luis Balicas and Guoqing Chang and Titus Neupert and Hechang Lei and Hasan, \{M. Zahid\}",

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year = "2025",

month = jul,

day = "2",

doi = "10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c01695",

language = "English",

volume = "25",

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Litskevich, M, Hossain, MS, Fu, Y, Miao, H, Jiang, Y, Cheng, G, Chen, P, Zhang, Q, Cheng, ZJ, Acevedo-Esteves, R, Nelson, C, Wang, H, Gonzalez Jimenez, JL, Casas, B, Liu, X, Tsirkin, SS, Dagnino, K, Zhang, S, Hsu, CH, Shao, S, Xu, S, Cochran, TA, Yang, XP, Xu, H, Yin, J, Gerasimenko, YA, Xie, W, Yao, N, Balicas, L, Chang, G, Neupert, T, Lei, H & Hasan, MZ 2025, 'Discovery of a Stripe Phase in an Elemental Solid', Nano Letters, vol. 25, no. 26, pp. 10386-10394. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c01695

TY - JOUR

T1 - Discovery of a Stripe Phase in an Elemental Solid

AU - Litskevich, Maksim

AU - Hossain, Md Shafayat

AU - Fu, Yang

AU - Miao, Hu

AU - Jiang, Yuxiao

AU - Cheng, Guangming

AU - Chen, Pengcheng

AU - Zhang, Qi

AU - Cheng, Zi Jia

AU - Acevedo-Esteves, Raul

AU - Nelson, Christie

AU - Wang, Haozhe

AU - Gonzalez Jimenez, Jose L.

AU - Casas, Brian

AU - Liu, Xiaoxiong

AU - Tsirkin, Stepan S.

AU - Dagnino, Kouta

AU - Zhang, Songbo

AU - Hsu, Chia Hsiu

AU - Shao, Sen

AU - Xu, Shaogang

AU - Cochran, Tyler A.

AU - Yang, Xian P.

AU - Xu, Hu

AU - Yin, Jiaxin

AU - Gerasimenko, Yaroslav A.

AU - Xie, Weiwei

AU - Yao, Nan

AU - Balicas, Luis

AU - Chang, Guoqing

AU - Neupert, Titus

AU - Lei, Hechang

AU - Hasan, M. Zahid

PY - 2025/7/2

Y1 - 2025/7/2

N2 - Translational symmetry breaking is foundational to condensed matter physics because it is associated with crystal formation. At much lower energy scales, the breaking of crystalline translational symmetry can be driven by electronic, rather than ionic, degrees of freedom and may give rise to stripe order, a unidirectional ordered state. Such symmetry breaking has been seen in two-dimensional and strongly correlated systems. Here, for the first time, we report the observation of stripe order in an elemental solid, tellurium. Through topographic and spectroscopic imaging, we discover a commensurate 4 × 1 stripe phase. Surprisingly, this exotic order is so robust that it survives close to room temperature. Notably, our diffraction experiments confirm the bulk nature of the stripe order, showing the minuteness of potential lattice distortion associated with the order. Our discovery of the stripe order in tellurium opens new windows to understanding the spontaneous symmetry breaking in elemental solids.

AB - Translational symmetry breaking is foundational to condensed matter physics because it is associated with crystal formation. At much lower energy scales, the breaking of crystalline translational symmetry can be driven by electronic, rather than ionic, degrees of freedom and may give rise to stripe order, a unidirectional ordered state. Such symmetry breaking has been seen in two-dimensional and strongly correlated systems. Here, for the first time, we report the observation of stripe order in an elemental solid, tellurium. Through topographic and spectroscopic imaging, we discover a commensurate 4 × 1 stripe phase. Surprisingly, this exotic order is so robust that it survives close to room temperature. Notably, our diffraction experiments confirm the bulk nature of the stripe order, showing the minuteness of potential lattice distortion associated with the order. Our discovery of the stripe order in tellurium opens new windows to understanding the spontaneous symmetry breaking in elemental solids.

KW - X-ray diffraction

KW - charge order

KW - chiral crystals

KW - phase transitions

KW - scanning tunneling microscopy

KW - semiconductors

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105008878061

U2 - 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c01695

DO - 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c01695

M3 - Article

C2 - 40524650

AN - SCOPUS:105008878061

SN - 1530-6984

VL - 25

SP - 10386

EP - 10394

JO - Nano Letters

JF - Nano Letters

IS - 26

ER -

Discovery of a Stripe Phase in an Elemental Solid

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Keywords

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