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)

1 LPTMS - Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques
2 INSP - Institut des Nanosciences de Paris
3 NEEL - MagSup - Magnétisme et Supraconductivité

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.

Domaines: Matière Condensée [cond-mat]

Serguei Brazovskii, Christophe Brun, Zhao-Zhong Wang, Pierre Monceau. Scanning-Tunneling Microscope Imaging of Single-Electron Solitons in a Material with Incommensurate Charge-Density Waves. Physical Review Letters, 2012, 108 (9), pp.096801. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.096801⟩. ⟨hal-01233582⟩