Stick-Slip Motion of the Wigner Solid on Liquid Helium

TL;DR

This paper investigates the stick-slip motion of a Wigner solid on liquid helium, revealing how decoupling from ripplons causes oscillations that can be tuned by various parameters, offering insights into polaron-like dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces time-resolved transport measurements of the Wigner solid on helium, demonstrating controllable stick-slip oscillations due to WS-ripplon decoupling.

Findings

Decoupling leads to tunable current oscillations.

Oscillation frequency depends on temperature, electric field, and electron density.

WS on helium can serve as a model for polaron dynamics.

Abstract

We present time-resolved transport measurements of a Wigner solid (WS) on the surface of liquid Helium confined in a micron-scale channel. At rest, the WS is `dressed' by a cloud of quantised capillary waves (ripplons). Under a driving force, we find that repeated WS-ripplon decoupling leads to stick-slip current oscillations, the frequency of which can be tuned by adjusting the temperature, pressing electric field, or electron density. The WS on liquid He is a promising system for the study of polaron-like decoupling dynamics.