Evidence for depinning of a Wigner crystal in Hg-Cd-Te

Creators: Field, Stuart B.; Reich, D. H.; Shivaram, B. S.; Rosenbaum, T. F.; Nelson, D. A.; Littlewood, P. B.

Abstract

We report measurements of the nonlinear current-voltage characteristics on low-carrier-concentration n-type samples of Hg_(0.76)Cd_(0.24)Te at high magnetic fields and low temperatures. We find the onset of nonlinear conductivity occurs at applied electric fields of less than 1 mV/cm. The effect can be easily distinguished from sample heating and is consistent with collective transport produced by the sliding of a Wigner crystal pinned by disorder. We estimate a disorder-induced correlation length of tens of micrometers.

Additional Information

© 1986 The American Physical Society. Received 15 April 1985; revised manuscript received 18 July 1985. We would like to thank R. M. Fleming, A. Libchaber, S. R. Nagel, G. A. Thomas, and C. M. Varma for helpful discussions. The work at the University of Chicago was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. DMR-83-05065. D.H.R. received support from NSF Grant No. DMR-83-51992. T.F.R. would also like to thank the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for financial assistance.

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