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Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 4354–4357 (2001)

Moving Wigner Glasses and Smectics: Dynamics of Disordered Wigner Crystals

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C. Reichhardt1, C. J. Olson1, N. Grønbech-Jensen2, and Franco Nori3
1Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, California 95616
2Department of Applied Science, University of California, Davis, California 95616
3Center for Theoretical Physics and Physics Department, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1120

Received 25 July 2000; published in the issue dated 7 May 2001

We examine the dynamics of driven classical Wigner solids interacting with quenched disorder from charged impurities. For strong disorder, the initial motion is plastic, in the form of crossing winding channels. For increasing drive, there is a reordering into a moving Wigner smectic with the electrons moving in separate 1D channels. These different dynamic phases can be related to the conduction noise and I(V) curves. For strong disorder, we show criticality in the voltage onset just above depinning. We obtain the dynamic phase diagram for driven Wigner solids and demonstrate a finite threshold of force for transverse sliding, recently observed experimentally.

© 2001 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.4354
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.4354
PACS:
73.50.-h, 73.43.Lp