Multi-vortex dynamics in junctions of charge density waves

TL;DR

This paper develops a dynamical model for charge density wave junctions, revealing how vortices nucleate at boundaries under certain voltages or currents, advancing understanding of topological defects in correlated materials.

Contribution

It introduces an unconventional Ginzburg-Landau type theory for CDW junctions, accounting for multiple interacting fields and local charge conservation, to model vortex nucleation.

Findings

Vortices nucleate at junction boundaries when voltage or current exceeds a threshold.

The model demonstrates the role of topological defects in CDW phase transitions.

Numerical simulations show complex vortex dynamics in restricted geometries.

Abstract

Ground state reconstruction by creation of topological defects in junctions of CDWs is a convenient playground for modern efforts of field-effect transformations in strongly correlated materials with spontaneous symmetry breakings. Being transient, this effect contributes also to another new science of pump-induced phase transitions. We present a dynamical model for behavior of the CDW in restricted geometries of junctions under an applied voltage or a passing current. The model takes into account multiple interacting fields: the amplitude and the phase of the CDW complex order parameter, distributions of the electric field, the density and the current of various normal carriers. A particular challenge was to monitor the local conservation of the condensed and the normal charge densities. That was done easily invoking the chiral invariance and the associated anomaly, but prize is an unconventional Ginsburg-Landau type theory which is not analytic with respect to the order parameter. The numerical modeling poses unusual difficulties but still can demonstrate that vortices are nucleated at the junction boundary when the voltage across, or the current through, exceed a threshold.