The effects of electric and magnetic fields on charge density wave solitons: Possible collective quantum behavior

Abstract

Aharonov-Bohm oscillations of period h/2e in the charge density wave (CDW) magneto-conductance of TaS3 rings strongly support the hypothesis that CDW electron transport is a cooperative quantum phenomenon. In the picture discussed here, droplets or aggregates of solitons and antisolitons quantum-mechanically nucleate and carry current above a Coulomb blockade threshold for CDW transport. The Schrodinger equation is treated as a “classical” description of emerging order parameters, as in Feynman’s description of Josephson tunneling. However, one key distinction of the proposed CDW model is that both the amplitudes and relative phases of the soliton droplet order parameters can vary with time. This ability to vary both amplitudes and phases of wave-function-like order parameters may prove critical to any viable quantum information processing strategies robust against decoherence.