Scanning-Tunneling Microscope Imaging of Single-Electron Solitons in a Material with Incommensurate Charge-Density Waves

Serguei Brazovskii 1 Christophe Brun 2 Zhao-Zhong Wang 2 Pierre Monceau 3

Physical Review Letters, American Physical Society, 2012, 108 (9), pp.096801. <10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.096801>

We report on scanning-tunneling microscopy experiments in a charge-density wave (CDW) system allowing visually capturing and studying in detail the individual solitons corresponding to the self-trapping of just one electron. This « Amplitude Soliton » is marked by vanishing of the CDW amplitude and by the pi shift of its phase. It might be the realization of the spinon-the long-sought particle (along with the holon) in the study of science of strongly correlated electronic systems. As a distinct feature we also observe one-dimensional Friedel oscillations superimposed on the CDW which develop independently of solitons.

  • 1. LPTMS – Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques
  • 2. INSP – Institut des Nanosciences de Paris
  • 3. MagSup
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