Obtaining insight into microscopic cooperative effects is a fascinating topic in condensed matter research because, through self-coordination and collectivity, they can lead to instabilities with macroscopic impacts like phase transitions. We used femtosecond time- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (trARPES) to optically pump and probe TbTe3, an excellent model system with which to study these effects. We drove a transient charge density wave melting, excited collective vibrations in TbTe3, and observed them through their time-, frequency-, and momentum-dependent influence on the electronic structure. We were able to identify the role of the observed collective vibration in the transition and to document the transition in real time. The information that we demonstrate as being accessible with trARPES will greatly enhance the understanding of all materials exhibiting collective phenomena.

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We present a detailed ARPES investigation of the RTe 3 family, which sets this system as an ideal "textbook" example for the formation of a nesting driven Charge Density Wave (CDW). This family indeed exhibits the full range of phenomena that can be associated to CDW instabilities, from the opening of large gaps on the best nested parts of Fermi Surface (FS) (up to 0.4eV), to the existence of residual metallic pockets. ARPES is the best suited technique to characterize these features, thanks to its unique ability to resolve the electronic structure in k-space. An additional advantage of RTe 3 is that the band structure can be very accurately described by a simple 2D tight-binding (TB) model, which allows one to understand and easily reproduce many characteristics of the CDW. In this paper, we first establish the main features of the electronic structure, by comparing our ARPES measurements with Linear Muffin-Tin Orbital band calculations. We use this to define the validity and limits of the TB model. We then present a complete description of the CDW properties and, for the first time, of their strong evolution as a function of R. Using simple models, we are able to reproduce perfectly the evolution of gaps in k-space, the evolution of the CDW wave vector with R and the shape of the residual metallic pockets. Finally, we give an estimation of the CDW interaction parameters and find that the change in the electronic density of states n(E f ), due to lattice expansion when different R ions are inserted, has the correct order of magnitude to explain the evolution of the CDW properties.

CeTe3 is a layered compound where an incommensurate charge density wave (CDW) opens a large gap ( approximately 400 meV) in optimally nested regions of the Fermi surface (FS), whereas other sections with poorer nesting remain ungapped. Through angle-resolved photoemission, we identify bands backfolded according to the CDW periodicity. They define FS pockets formed by the intersection of the original FS and its CDW replica. Such pockets illustrate very directly the role of nesting in the CDW formation but they could not be detected so far in a CDW system. We address the reasons for the weak intensity of the folded bands, by comparing different foldings coexisting in CeTe3.

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