Charge density waves in individual nanoribbons of orthorhombic-TaS3Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c5cp03351a

Orthorhombic-TaS 3 is a quasi-1D material that undergoes a Peierls' transition to become a charge density wave conductor at low temperatures. Electrical transport measurements of individual single-crystalline TaS 3 nanoribbons prepared by a novel bottom-up method from elemental precursors indicate a depression of the Peierls' ordering temperature to 205 K, broadening of the electric-field-induced depinning of the charge density wave below the Peierls' transition temperature, and a greatly increased threshold voltage for nucleation of charge density wave dislocations posited to be a result of surface confinement and finite size effects. Single-nanoribbon measurements of broad-band noise indicate discrete phase slip events near the depinning threshold. Three distinct regimes are identified with the normalized noise spectrum showing a distinctive maxima near the threshold voltage for depinning of the charge density wave, corresponding to sampling of different metastable states that balance ordered and sliding charge density waves. Electrical transport and noise measurements of individual orthorhombic-TaS 3 nanoribbons allow for examination of surface confinement effects on charge density waves.