Macroscopic Coulomb Blockade Model of Density Wave Transport

TL;DR

This paper presents a macroscopic Coulomb blockade model explaining density wave transport, where quantum tunneling of soliton pairs is suppressed below a threshold field, accounting for experimental observations of small phase displacements.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Coulomb blockade model for density wave transport that links quantum tunneling suppression to electrostatic energy constraints.

Findings

Explains small phase displacements observed experimentally.

Identifies a threshold field for soliton pair creation.

Provides a natural explanation for Coulomb blockade in density waves.

Abstract

Charge and spin density waves are highly correlated electron systems that can transport an electric current. A model is discussed in which a field E induces the creation, by quantum tunneling, of pairs of oppositely charged solitons and antisolitons in a density wave. Pair creation is blocked, for fields below a threshold value ET, because the increase in electrostatic energy would violate energy conservation. When E > ET, this Coulomb blockade mechanism time- correlates the pair creation and annihilation events. The model provides a natural explanation for the extremely small phase displacements below threshold suggested by NMR and other experiments.