Alloying effect of rare-earth tritellurides on the charge density wave and magnetic properties

Among many van der Waals materials rare-earth tritellurides (RTe₃) allow studying several phenomena like magnetic, superconducting, and charge density wave (CDW). These studies show the effect of cationic alloying of antiferromagnetic RTe₃ for fully tunable near room-temperature CDW properties. Dy_xGd_1−xTe₃ and Dy_xTb_1−xTe₃ alloys were synthesized through a chemical vapor transport technique, and the rare-earth element composition was controlled by changing the ratio of rare-earth metal reagents. The results show that the lattice parameters can be continuously tuned with the composition of the rare-earth cations leading to the variation of the internal chemical pressure. Temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopy and electric transport measurement show that the CDW transition temperature (T_CDW) of RTe₃ alloys varies with lattice parameters/chemical pressure spanning across 300-380 K. Additional magnetism studies offer the first insights into the magnetic ordering in RTe₃ alloys. The emergence of multiple magnetic transitions implies complex magnetic interactions that arise from interactions between different rare-earth elements. Overall findings introduce ways to control the CDW behavior and provide valuable insights into the magnetic ordering in RTe₃ alloys, contributing to further investigation and a better understanding of their properties.