Temperature-driven Transition from the Wigner Crystal to the Bond-charge-density Wave in the Quasi-one-dimensional Quarter-filled Band

Clay, R. T., Hardikar, R. P., & Mazumdar, S. (2007). Temperature-driven Transition from the Wigner Crystal to the Bond-charge-density Wave in the Quasi-one-dimensional Quarter-filled Band. Phys. Rev. B. 76, 205118.

Abstract

It is known that within the interacting electron model Hamiltonian for the one-dimensional (1/4)-filled band, the singlet ground state is a Wigner crystal only if the nearest-neighbor electron-electron repulsion is larger than a critical value. We show that this critical nearest-neighbor Coulomb interaction is different for each spin subspace, with the critical value decreasing with increasing spin. As a consequence, with the lowering of temperature, there can occur a transition from a Wigner crystal charge-ordered state to a spin-Peierls state that is a bond-charge-density wave with charge occupancies different from the Wigner crystal. This transition is possible because spin excitations from the spin-Peierls state in the (1/4)-filled band are necessarily accompanied by changes in site charge densities. We apply our theory to the (1/4)-filled band quasi-one-dimensional organic charge-transfer solids, in general, and to 2:1 tetramethyltetrathiafulvalene (TMTTF) and tetramethyltetraselenafulvalene cationic salts, in particular. We believe that many recent experiments strongly indicate the Wigner crystal to bond-charge-density Wave transition in several members of the TMTTF family. We explain the occurrence of two different antiferromagnetic phases but a single spin-Peierls state in the generic phase diagram for the 2:1 cationic solids. The antiferromagnetic phases can have either the Wigner crystal or the bond-charge-spin-density wave charge occupancies. The spin-Peierls state is always a bond-charge-density wave.