Wigner crystal in snaked nanochannels: outlook

TL;DR

This paper investigates the behavior of Wigner crystals in snaked nanochannels, revealing phases of conductivity and insulation, and draws parallels to organic molecular transport, highlighting a transition akin to superfluid-insulator phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a model of Wigner crystals in snaked nanochannels, showing phase transitions and glassy dynamics without disorder, and relates these to superfluid-insulator transitions via the KAM concept.

Findings

Existence of conducting sliding phase at low charge densities.

Emergence of insulating pinned phase above critical density.

Presence of a dynamical glassy phase without disorder.

Abstract

We study properties of Wigner crystal in snaked nanochannels and show that they are characterized by a conducting sliding phase at low charge densities and an insulating pinned phase emerging above a certain critical charge density. We trace parallels between this model problem and the Little suggestion for electron transport in organic molecules. We also show that in presence of periodic potential inside the snaked channel the sliding phase exists only inside a certain window of electron densities that has similarities with a pressure dependence of conductivity in organic conductors. Our studies show emergence of dynamical glassy phase in a purely periodic potential in absence of any disorder that can explain enormously slow variations of resistivity in organic conductors. Finally we discuss the KAM concept of superfluidity induced by repulsive Coulomb interaction between electrons. We argue that the transition from the sliding KAM phase to the pinned Aubry phase corresponds to the superfluid-insulator transition.