Defects in quasi-one dimensional oxide conductors: K0.3MoO3

The electronic structure of the prototypical quasi-one dimensional (ID) conductor K0.3MoO3 has been studied using high resolution photoemission spectroscopy. In particular, the electronic structure of defects was investigated in order to understand the mechanism for charge density wave pinning and destruction of the Peierls transition. Defects were found to radically alter the electronic structure close to the Fermi level (EF), thus strongly modifying the structure of the Fermi surface. While a low emission intensity at EF has been interpreted as evidence for a Luttinger liquid ground state in a 1D metal, the authors show that non-stoichiometric surfaces lead to similar effects. The nature of the ground state is discussed in the context of these results