Sliding regime of conduction in “one-dimensional Wigner crystal”

• Published in: Physica. B, Condensed matter Condensed matter, 2012-06, Vol.407 (11), p.1894-1897
• Main Authors: Artemenko, S.N., Shapiro, D.S., Vakhitov, R.R., Remizov, S.V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Condensed matter; Conduction; Crystals; Density; Electric potential; Impurities; One-dimensional interacting electrons; Pinning; Sliding; Volt-ampere characteristics; Voltage
• ISSN: 0921-4526; 1873-2135
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physb.2012.01.057

We study theoretically transport properties of one-dimensional system of interacting electrons pinned by an impurity. Long-range Coulomb interaction in such a system is known to induce a 4kF electron density modulation characterized by extremely slow, slower than any power law, decay of the density correlations which can be described as a one-dimensional Wigner crystal. We study non-stationary regime of conduction corresponding to sliding of the 1D Wigner crystal depinned by the applied voltage. In this regime the dc current is accompanied by current oscillations with frequency f=I¯/e. We calculate I–V curves and ac current generated by sliding. Our approach is based on the ideas of Luttinger liquid. We study also the case of magnetic impurity and show that applied voltage induces not only the electrical current, but also the spin current as well, in other words, the current becomes spin polarized. We find that a spin bias applied to the system contributes to electric current both in case of magnetic and non-magnetic impurity, and this is related to violation of the spin–charge separation at the impurity site.