Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Studies of Charge Density Waves in NbSe₂ and muSR studies of Nickel doping in BaFe₂As₂

Scanning Tunneling Microscopy is a very powerful technique to study electronic properties of condensed matter systems at the nanoscale. Part I of this thesis describes my work on Charge Density Waves (CDW) in NbSe₂. NbSe₂ is a layered dichalcogenide that has a CDW phase below 33K. We describe our study of the phase transition from the normal phase to the CDW phase at atomic scales. This is more relevant in light of recent discoveries of charge order in cuprates. Brand new research has shed some light about the relationship between the pseudogap phase, charge order and superconductivity in cuprates. The behavior of the CDW phase in NbSe₂ described in chapter 3 is strongly reminiscent of this physics of cuprates. NbSe₂ is an excellent test bed for the study of the effect of impurities in correlated phases. In chapter 4 we revisit the cause of CDW formation in NbSe₂. By including a very dilute concentration of impurities, we obtain information of the electronic bands of the material in the CDW phase. Based on this information, we are able to discuss the relationship between nesting, electron-phonon coupling and CDW in NbSe₂. We demonstrate that by combining quasiparticle interference data with additional knowledge of the quasiparticle band structure from angle resolved photoemission measurements, one can extract the wavevector and energy dependence of the important electronic scattering processes. Part II focuses on Muon Spin Rotation and its application to the study of high-Tc superconductors. We describe our muSR studies on Nickel doped BaFe₂As₂. By analyzing several doping concentrations, we explore the phase diagram in the antiferromagnetic and in the superconducting phases. This discussion also includes a detailed discussion of a doping concentration which falls in-between the AF and the SC phase.