Peierls instability in degenerate semiconductors under strong external magnetic fields

The possibility of the occurrence of a Peierls-type transition in doped semiconductor chalcogenides (e.g., PbTe) under a strong external magnetic field is investigated within a theory that includes the effect of electron-impurity scattering. The effect of charged-impurity scattering is found to lower the transition temperature $T_c$. For realistic material parameters corresponding to PbTe, a transition with reasonable values (∼1 K) of $T_c$ is found to be possible provided the impurity-induced level broadening is not too large. Experimental consequences of such an instability are discussed qualitatively.