The essential role of surface pinning in the dynamics of charge density waves submitted to external dc fields

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that surface pinning significantly influences charge density wave dynamics under external electric fields, with boundary effects dominating bulk pinning in determining electrical properties.

Contribution

It provides an analytical model incorporating surface pinning effects and boundary conditions, explaining experimental observations and emphasizing the importance of surface effects in CDW dynamics.

Findings

Surface pinning causes strong shear deformation in CDWs.

Analytical formulas for phase and threshold field are derived.

Experimental data align with the model, highlighting boundary effects.

Abstract

A Charge Density Wave (CDW) submitted to an electric field displays a strong shear deformation because of pinning at the lateral surfaces of the sample. This CDW transverse pinning was recently observed but has received little attention from a theoretical point of view until now despite important consequences on electrical conductivity properties. Here, we provide a description of this phenomenon by considering a CDW submitted to an external dc electric field and constrained by boundary conditions including both longitudinal pinning due to electrical contacts and transverse surface pinning. A simple formula for the CDW phase is obtained in 3D by using the Green function and image charges method. In addition, an analytical expression of the threshold field dependence on both length and sample cross section is obtained by considering the phase slip process. We show that the experimental data are well reproduced with this model and that bulk pinning can be neglected. This study shows that the dynamical properties of CDW systems could be mainly driven by boundary effects, despite the comparatively huge sample volumes.