Reconstructing Charge Density Wave State Domains in 1T-TaS₂

Low-dimensional conducting materials host a wealth of interesting physics. When a low-dimensional material enters a charge density wave (CDW) state, that material undergoes a periodic electronic and structural transformation. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements can detail, at the atomic scale, the electronic and structural properties of CDW states. By first analyzing Fourier transforms of STM topographies acquired on the 1T-TaS₂ CDW compound, we extract essential wavevectors to allow us to computationally recreate STM topographic features so as to understand the nature of the material’s nearly-commensurate CDW state.