Determination of the Peierls Distortion Transition Temperature in Te Extreme Nanowires by EXAFS Spectroscopy

By confining Te within carbon nanotubes (CNTs) we can generate single atom chains of Te (so-called ‘extreme nanowires’). When cooled, these are hypothesised to undergo a Peierls distortion. We expect to see this by analysis of Te–Te bond lengths obtained by analysis of variable temperature Te EXAFS spectra obtained from the extreme nanowires confined in CNTs.