We report complex behaviors in the phase evolution of transition-metal dichalcogenide IrTe2 thin flakes, captured with real-space observations using scanning Raman microscopy. The phase transition progresses via growth of a small number of domains, which is unlikely in statistical models that assume a macroscopic number of nucleation events. Consequently, the degree of phase evolution in the thin flakes is quite variable for the selected specimen and for a repeated measurement sequence, representing the emergence of complexity in the phase evolution. In the ∼20-μm3-volume specimen, the complex phase evolution results in the emergent coexistence of a superconducting phase that originally requires chemical doping to become thermodynamically stable. These findings indicate that the complexity involved in phase evolution considerably affects the physical properties of a small-sized specimen.
@article{arxiv.2110.05813,
title = {Real-space observation of emergent complexity of phase evolution in micrometer-sized IrTe$_2$ crystals},
author = {H. Oike and K. Takeda and M. Kamitani and Y. Tokura and F. Kagawa},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2110.05813},
year = {2021}
}