• Accepted Paper

Winding charge density wave: Intertwining of structural chirality and phase topology of electronic order

Shun Asano and Youichi Yanase

Phys. Rev. Lett. - Accepted 6 November, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1r92-yzsm

Abstract

We propose a class of chiral charge density waves (CDWs), dubbed winding CDWs, that exhibit macroscopic chirality despite a single ordering wavevector. In screw-symmetric chiral crystals, chiral phonons drive a Peierls instability that selects a definite crystal angular momentum channel, thereby endowing the CDW with an integer azimuthal phase winding dictated by the selection rule governing electron–phonon coupling. We further extend this framework to achiral crystals with discrete rotational symmetry and demonstrate that spontaneous symmetry breaking stabilizes a winding CDW with either handedness, realizing an achiral-to-chiral phase transition. Our results reveal a fundamental link between the geometry of chiral structures and the phase topology of electronic orders.

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