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Updated: Jul 31, 2025
Methods of Ex Situ and In Situ Investigations of Structural Transformations: The Case of Crystallization of Metallic Glasses
Published on: June 7, 2018
Noise and thermal depinning of Wigner crystals
C Reichhardt1, C J O Reichhardt1
1Theoretical Division and Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, United States of America.
Abstract:
We examine changes in the depinning threshold and conduction noise fluctuations for driven Wigner crystals in the presence of quenched disorder. At low temperatures there is a well defined depinning threshold and a strong peak in the noise power with1/fnoise characteristics. At higher temperatures, the depinning threshold shifts to lower drives and the noise, which is also reduced in power, becomes more white in character. At lower temperatures, a washboard frequency appears when the system depins elastically or forms a moving smectic state; however, this washboard signal is strongly reduced for higher temperatures and completely disappears above the melting temperature of a system without quenched disorder. Our results are in good agreement with recent transport and noise studies for systems where electron crystal depinning is believed to arise, and also show how noise can be used to distinguish between crystal, glass, and liquid phases.
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