Time-domain identification of distinct mechanisms for competing charge density waves in a rare-earth tritelluride

Nature Physics (2026) Cite this article Understanding the origin of phase transitions and the interactions between distinct phases remains a central task in condensed-matter physics. Charge-density-wave (CDW) systems provide a useful setting to investigate these questions. Although the dominant CDW phases in many materials can be explained through electron–phonon interactions, certain CDW phase transitions remain poorly understood, challenging conventional paradigms. One example is the rare-earth tritelluride ErTe3, which hosts two competing CDW orders. Although electron–phonon coupling accounts for the dominant order, the mechanism behind the subdominant order remains unclear. In this study, we combine time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and time-dependent Ginzburg–Landau theory to establish a time-domain approach for probing phase transitions in solid-state systems. 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Replication data for: time-domain identification of distinct mechanisms for competing charge density waves in a rare-earth tritelluride. Harvard Dataverse https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/MJR8QI (2026).Download referencesWe thank M. Trigo, G. Orenstein, H. Wang, S.-Y. Kim, P. Kirchmann, A. Kogar, F. Grandi, J. Curtis, Y. Wang, K. Burch and M. Zhu for stimulating discussions. We thank X. Lu for helping with figure plotting.The work at MIT was supported by the US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s EPiQS Initiative grant GBMF9459 (instrumentation). A.Z. acknowledges support from the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under award number DE-SC0026202 (data analysis and manuscript writing). A.M., E.D., P.E.D. and S.C. acknowledge support from ETH, the SNSF project 200021_212899, the SNSF Sinergia grant CRSII–222792, and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (contract number UeM019-1). Sample growth and characterization work at Stanford was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under award number DEAC02-76SF00515.B. Q. LvPresent address: Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, School of Physics and Astronomy, and Zhangjiang Institute for Advanced Study, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, ChinaThese authors contributed equally: Yifan Su, B. Q. Lv, Alfred Zong.Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, Cambridge, MA, USAYifan Su, B. Q. Lv, Alfred Zong, Doron Azoury, Masataka Mogi & Nuh GedikDepartments of Physics and of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USAAlfred ZongSIMES, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USAAlfred Zong, Anisha G. Singh, Joshua A. W. Straquadine & Ian R. FisherInstitute for Theoretical Physics, ETH Zürich, Zürich, SwitzerlandAaron Müller, Sambuddha Chattopadhyay & Eugene DemlerLyman Laboratory, Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USASambuddha Chattopadhyay & Pavel E. DolgirevGeballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USAAnisha G. Singh, Joshua A. W. Straquadine & Ian R. FisherDepartment of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USAAnisha G. Singh, Joshua A. W. Straquadine & Ian R. FisherMassachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Cambridge, MA, USADongsung ChoiDepartment of Applied Physics, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, JapanMasataka MogiSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarY.S., B.Q.L. and A.Z. conceived the study. Y.S., B.Q.L., A.Z., D.C., D.A. and M.M. performed the trARPES measurements. A.G.S. and J.A.W.S., under the supervision of I.R.F., grew the crystals for the experiment. A.M., S.C. and P.E.D. performed the theoretical calculations under the supervision of E.D. Y.S., B.Q.L. and A.Z. performed the data analysis with help from A.M., S.C., A.G.S., I.R.F. and N.G. Y.S., B.Q.L. and A.Z. wrote the paper with critical input from all other authors. The work was supervised by N.G.Correspondence to Nuh Gedik.The authors declare no competing interests.Nature Physics thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Supplementary Figs. 1–18 and Sections I–IV.Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.Reprints and permissionsSu, Y., Lv, B.Q., Zong, A. et al. Time-domain identification of distinct mechanisms for competing charge density waves in a rare-earth tritelluride. Nat. Phys. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03382-5Download citationReceived: 15 April 2025Accepted: 18 June 2026Published: 07 August 2026Version of record: 07 August 2026DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03382-5Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative