Quenching of phase coherence in quasi-one dimensional ring crystals

The comparison of the single-particle (SP) dynamics between the whisker and ring NbSe$_3$ crystals provides new insight into the phase transition properties in quasi-one-dimensional charge density wave (CDW) systems.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Topologically Linked Crystals

We discovered a new class of topological crystals, namely linked rings of crystals. Two rings of tantalum triselenide (TaSe3) single crystals were linked to each other while crystal growing. The topology of the crystal form is called a "Hopf link", which is the simplest link involving just two component unknots linked together exactly once. The feature of the crystals is not covered by the conventional crystallography.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in J. Crystal Growt

Topology-change surgery for crystals

We performed the topology-change surgery for ring-shaped crystals of tantalum triselenide (TaSe3) to investigate the interplay between the closed-ring topology and elasticity/plasticity of the crystals. We cut the TaSe3 rings using a focused ion beam and observed that the curvatures of the open rings increased from their initial curvatures. We found that a change in the radius is proportional to inverse square of the thickness of the crystals, which corresponds to an inhomogeneous distribution of edge dislocations. From the distribution, we suggest the existence of cylindrical domain walls in the ring-shaped crystals as a result of the crystal topology

Topological crystals

We report the discovery of a Möbius crystal of NbSe$_3$, conventionally grown as ribbons and whiskers. We also reveal their formation mechanisms of which two crucial components are the spherical selenium (Se) droplet, which a NbSe$_3$ fiber wraps around due to surface tension, and the monoclinic ($P2_{1}/m$) crystal symmetry inherent in NbSe$_3$, which induces a twist in the strip when bent. Our crystals provide a non-fictitious Möbius world governed by a non-trivial real-space topology