Charge Density Waves in GdTe₂ Thin Films

GdTe2 thin films are grown by molecular beamepitaxy.Two types of charge density waves (CDW) are found to coexist on thesurface of the films by using scanning tunneling microscopy. The experimentalevidence, such as energy range, pattern orientation, domain formation,and thickness dependence, indicate that the two CDWs should be independentof each other. The correlation between quasi-particle interferenceand the CDW wave vectors suggest that the conventional Fermi surfacenesting mechanism does not account for the observed CWD orders.