INVESTIGATION OF THE THERMAL HYSTERESIS IN THE THERMOPOWER OF (NBSE4)10I3

We report the resistivity and the thermopower (TEP) measurements of li near chain compound (NbSe4)10I3 which show substantial hysteresis betw een the cooling and the heating cycles below and above the Peierls tra nsition. The magnitude of the observed TEP hysteresis increases if the system is cooled to lower temperatures. Cooling below 70K has no furt her influence on the magnitude of the hysteresis loop. An indication o f the time dependence of the TEP is also found. These effects are atri buted to the interactions between the inhomogenous charge density (CDW ) superlattice and a quasi-periodic defect structure which has been fo und in (NbSe4)10I3.