Coulomb blockade of the collective current in charge-density-wave systems

The Coulomb-interaction effect on the phase slip in charge-density-wave (CDW) systems is studied theoretically. Sliding motion of the CDW is accompanied by thermally activated phase-slip processes near electrical contacts. We calculate the thermal nucleation rate of the phase slip taking account of the Coulomb-interaction effect on dislocation loops. We find that the effect manifests itself when the quasiparticle screening length lambda(qp) is much longer than the longitudinal phason screening length lambda(ph). It is shown that due to a large charging energy associated with the dislocation-loop nucleation, the phase-slip rate is greatly reduced when the applied voltage is smaller than the threshold voltage V-th similar to gammahnu(F)(elambda(ph)) (gamma: anisotropy constant, nu(F): Fermi velocity). This indicates that the collective CDW current below the threshold voltage is strongly suppressed by the Coulomb blockade of the phase slip.