New Mechanism for a Charge-Density-Wave Instability

It is shown that a two-dimensional energy band with saddle points at the Fermi energy is unstable against charge density wave formation. The distorted phase is metallic with only a relatively small area of Fermi surface truncated at the saddle points. It is suggested that this model applies to the layer compounds $2H$-TaSe₂, $2H$-TaS₂, $2H$-NbSe₂, and 4Hb-TaS₂.