Transport properties of a quasi-1D Wigner Solid on liquid helium confined in a microchannel with periodic potential

TL;DR

This study investigates how a periodic electrostatic potential affects the nonlinear transport and structural order of a quasi-1D Wigner Solid of electrons on liquid helium confined in a microchannel, revealing suppression of order with increased potential amplitude.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of the impact of a periodic potential on the transport and ordering of a quasi-1D Wigner Solid on liquid helium.

Findings

Periodic potential suppresses Bragg-Cherenkov scattering

Increased potential amplitude leads to loss of long-range order

Reentrant melting behavior observed due to lateral confinement

Abstract

We present transport measurements in a quasi-1D system of surface electrons on liquid helium confined in a 101-$\mu$m long and 5-$\mu$m wide microchannel where an electrostatic potential with periodicity of $1$-$\mu$m along the channel is introduced. In particular, we investigate the influence of such a potential on the nonlinear transport of quasi-1D Wigner Solid (WS) by varying the amplitude of the periodic potential in a wide range. At zero and small values of amplitude, quasi-1D WS in microchannel shows expected features such as the Bragg-Cherenkov scattering of ripplons and reentrant melting. As the amplitude of potential increases, the above features are strongly suppressed. This behavior suggests loss of the long-range positional order in the electron system, which is reminiscent of the re-entrant melting behaviour due to the lateral confinement of WS in the channel.