arXiv subjects

Caitlin Kengle

Publications and source records attributed to Caitlin Kengle.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Momentum-resolved EELS study of collective charge excitations in 1$T$-TaS$_2$

We use momentum-resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy (M-EELS) to study the low-energy charge excitations of 1$T$-TaS$_2$ across the nearly commensurate-to-commensurate charge-density-wave (CDW) transition. Single-crystal x-ray diffraction and elastic M-EELS measurements confirm the expected rotation of the CDW wave vector upon entering the commensurate phase. In the nearly commensurate phase, the low-energy M-EELS spectra reveal an acoustic phonon branch and two optical phonon features whose energies and dispersions are broadly consistent with previous calculations and inelastic x-ray measurements. Across the transition, the optical phonon energies remain nearly unchanged, while their spectral intensity develops a pronounced temperature dependence near the CDW ordering wave vector. At higher energies, the finite-momentum charge response undergoes a substantial redistribution of spectral weight below the transition, consistent with the opening of an energy gap. These results demonstrate that M-EELS provides simultaneous access to lattice dynamics and finite-momentum valence band charge excitations in 1$T$-TaS$_2$, revealing their evolution across the commensurate CDW transition.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Tuning Incommensurate Charge Order in Ba$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$Al$_4$ and Ba$_{1-y}$Eu$_y$Al$_4$

The BaAl$_4$-type structure family is home to a vast landscape of interesting and exotic properties, with descendant crystal structures hosting a variety of electronic ground states including magnetic, superconducting and strongly correlated electron phenomena. BaAl$_4$ itself hosts a non-trivial topological band structure, but is otherwise a paramagnetic metal. However, the other members of the $A$Al$_4$ family ($A$= alkali earth), including SrAl$_4$ and EuAl$_4$, exhibit symmetry-breaking ground states including charge density wave (CDW) and magnetic orders. Here we investigate the properties of the solid solution series Ba$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$Al$_4$ and Ba$_{1-y}$Eu$_y$Al$_4$ using transport, thermodynamic and scattering experiments to study the evolution of the charge-ordered state as it is suppressed with Ba substitution to zero near 50% substitution in both systems. Neutron and x-ray diffraction measurements reveal an incommensurate CDW state in SrAl$_4$ with $c$-axis-oriented ordering vector (0, 0, 0.097) that evolves with Ba substitution toward a shorter wavelength. A similar progression is observed in the Ba$_{1-y}$Eu$_y$Al$_4$ series that also scales with the ordering temperature, revealing a universal correlation between charge-order transition temperature and ordering vector that points to a critical wavevector that stabilizes CDW order in both systems. We study the evolution of the phonon band structure in the Ba$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$Al$_4$ system, revealing the suppression of the CDW phase matches the suppression of a phonon instability at precisely the same momentum as observed in experiments, confirming the electron-phonon origin of charge order in this system.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Consistency between reflection M-EELS and optical spectroscopy measurements of the long-wavelength density response of Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+x}$

The density fluctuation spectrum captures many fundamental properties of strange metals. Using momentum-resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy (M-EELS), we recently showed that the density response of the strange metal Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+x}$ (Bi-2212) at large momentum, $q$, exhibits a constant-in-frequency continuum [Mitrano, PNAS $\textbf{115}$, 5392 (2018); Husain, PRX $\textbf{9}$, 041062 (2019)] reminiscent of the marginal Fermi liquid (MFL) hypothesis of the late 1980s [Varma, PRL $\textbf{63}$, 1996 (1989)]. However, reconciling this observation with infrared (IR) optics experiments, which show a well-defined plasmon excitation at $q \sim 0$, has been challenging. Here we report M-EELS measurements of Bi-2212 using 4$\times$ improved momentum resolution, allowing us to reach the optical limit. For momenta $q<0.04$ r.l.u., the M-EELS data show a plasmon feature that is quantitatively consistent with IR optics. For $q>0.04$ r.l.u., the spectra become incoherent with an MFL-like, constant-in-frequency form. We speculate that, at finite frequency, $ω$, and nonzero $q$, some attribute of this Planckian metal randomizes the probe electron, causing it to lose information about its own momentum.

cond-mat.str-el↗