Direct observation of delocalized exciton state in Ta₂ NiSe₅: direct evidence of the excitonic insulator state

The excitonic insulator (EI), which is one of fundamental insulators, was theoretically proposed in 1967 but its material realization has not been established well. Only a few materials were proposed as EIs but their experimental evidences were indirect such as the renormalization of band dispersions or an anomaly in electrical resistivity. We conducted scanning tunneling microscopy / spectroscopy measurements and found out that $Ta_2$ $NiSe_5$, which was the most recently proposed as an EI, had a metal-insulator phase transition with the energy gap of 700 meV at 78 K. Moreover, the spatially delocalized excitonic energy level was observed within the energy gap, which could be the direct evidence of the EI ground state. Our theoretical model calculation with the order parameter of 150 meV reproduces the spectral function and the excitonic energy gap very well. In addition, experimental data shows that the band character is inverted at the valence and conduction band edges by the exciton formation, indicating that the mechanism of exciton condensation is similar to the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) mechanism of cooper pairs in superconductors.