Fermi surface nesting and charge-density wave formation in rare-earth tritellurides

The Fermi surface of rare-earth tritellurides sRTe3d is investigated in terms of the nesting-driven chargedensity wave formation using positron annihilation and first-principles linear muffin-tin orbital calculations. Fermi surface nesting is revealed as a strong candidate for driving charge-density wave formation in these compounds. The nesting vector obtained from positron annihilation experiments on GdTe3 is determined to be q= s0.28±0.02,0 ,0da* sa*=2p /ad, in excellent agreement with previous experimental and theoretical studies.