Evolution of the structural transition in Mo$_{1-x}$W$_{x}$Te$_{2}$

Abstract

The composition dependence of the structural transition between the monoclinic 1T$^{\prime}$ and orthorhombic T$_{d}$ phases in the Mo$_{1-x}$W$_{x}$Te$_{2}$ Weyl semimetal was investigated by elastic neutron scattering on single crystals up to $x \approx 0.54$. First observed in MoTe$_{2}$, the transition from T$_{d}$ to 1T$^{\prime}$ is accompanied by an intermediate pseudo-orthorhombic phase, T$_{d}^{*}$. Upon doping with W, the T$_{d}^{*}$ phase vanishes by $x \approx 0.34$. Above this concentration, a phase coexistence behavior with both T$_{d}$ and 1T$^{\prime}$ is observed instead. The interlayer in-plane positioning parameter $\delta$, which relates to the 1T$^{\prime}$ $\beta$ angle, decreases with temperature as well as with W substitution, likely due to strong anharmonicity in the interlayer interactions. The temperature width of the phase coexistence remains almost constant up to $x \approx 0.54$, in contrast to the broadening reported under pressure.