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Zone-center phonons of bulk, few-layer, and monolayer 1T-TaS$_2$: Detection of the commensurate charge density wave phase through Raman scattering

We present first-principles calculations of the vibrational properties of the transition metal dichalcogenide 1T-TaS$_2$ for various thicknesses in the high-temperature (undistorted) phase and the low-temperature commensurate charge density wave (CDW) phase. We also present measurements of the Raman spectra for bulk, few-layer, and monolayer samples at temperatures well below that of the bulk transition to the commensurate phase. Through our calculations, we identify the low-frequency folded-back acoustic modes as a convenient signature of the commensurate CDW wave structure in vibrational spectra. In our measured Raman spectra, this signature is clearly evident in all of the samples, indicating that the commensurate phase remains the ground state as the material is thinned, even down to a single layer. This is in contrast to some previous studies which suggest a suppression of the commensurate CDW transition in thin flakes. We also use polarized Raman spectroscopy to probe c-axis orbital texture in the low-T phase, which has recently been suggested as playing a role in the metal-insulator transition that accompanies the structural transition to the commensurate CDW phase.