Scanning tunneling microscopy observation of a mott-insulator phase at the 1T-TaSe2 surface

We present scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements at the TaSe2 surface showing a first order process leading to a surface Mott transition. This metal to insulator transition is triggered by the commensurate charge density wave (CDW) which set up at 475 K. The electronic structure rearrangement due to the new periodicity gives rise to a half filled sub-band prone to the localization phenomena. This transition results fully developed below 250 K in agreement with previous photoemission measurements.