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