Strong-coupling charge density wave in a one-dimensional topological metal

Scanning tunneling microscopy, low-energy electron diffraction, and helium atom scattering show a transition to a dimerizationlike reconstruction in the one-dimensional atomic chains on Bi(114) at low temperatures. One-dimensional metals are generally unstable against such a Peierls-like distortion, but neither the shape nor the spin texture of the Bi(114) Fermi contour favors the transition: Although the Fermi contour is one dimensional and thus perfectly nested, the very short nesting vector 2kF is inconsistent with the periodicity of the distortion. Moreover, the nesting occurs between two Fermi contour branches of opposite spin, which is also expected to prevent the formation of a Peierls phase. Indeed, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy does not reveal any change in the electronic structure near the Fermi energy around the phase transition. On the other hand, distinct changes at higher binding energies are found to accompany the structural phase transition. This suggests that the transition of a strong-coupling type and that it is driven by phonon entropy rather than electronic entropy. This picture is supported by the observed short correlation length of the pairing distortion, the second-order-like character of the phase transition, and pronounced differences between the surface phonon spectra of the high- and low-temperature phases.