Emergence of a Thermal Hysteresis of Electrical Resistance by Thinning in 1T-TiSe2

We measured the temperature dependence of the resistance in thinned samples of a layered transition metal dichalcogenide 1T-TiSe2. As a result, a thermal hysteresis of resistance was discovered in most samples with a thickness of 10 mu m or less, but not in samples thicker than 100 mu m. The onset temperature of this hysteresis was almost the same as the onset temperature of the charge density wave (CDW) transition, suggesting that this hysteresis is related to the CDW. All the samples with hysteresis exhibited one or a few jumps of resistance in the 110-190 K range in cooling. Moreover, the hysteresis was related not only to the history of temperature below the CDW transition temperature, but also to that above the transition temperature. To interpret these anomalous results, we discuss the effect of impurities on the domain structure of the CDW.