Temperature and electric-current dependence of charge-ordered domains in θ-(BEDT-TTF)₂CsZn(SCN)₄

¹  The Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University - Okayama 700-8530, Japan
²  Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University - Sendai 980-8577, Japan
³  The Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo - Kashiwa 277-8581, Japan
⁴  Department of Organic and Polymeric Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology - Tokyo 152-8552, Japan
⁵  Department of Applied Physics, Waseda University - Tokyo 169-8555, Japan

Corresponding author: terra@waseda.jp

Received: 19 May 2008
Accepted: 1 September 2008

Abstract

We report X-ray diffraction measurements of the charge-ordered organic conductor -(BEDT-TTF)₂CsZn(SCN)₄ at various temperatures with external currents. The two kinds of diffuse scattering observed at q₁ = (2/3 k 1/3) and q₂ = (0 k 1/2) exhibit remarkable difference in the interplane correlation along the b-axis, the temperature dependence, and the electric-current dependence. These observations suggest that the two diffuse scatterings come from spatially different charge-ordered domains. The external current melts the q₂-type domains, which can control the competition of the two orders.