Macroscopic Coulomb Blockade Model of Density Wave Transport

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.