Pinning, metastability, and sliding of charge-density waves in an electric field

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Abstract
The static and dynamic behavior of a charge-density wave, with random pinning forces and with or without a weak commensurate potential, under the application of an electric field, is considered. A mode-coupling theory is introduced in which the modes are the various length and time scales of the deformed charge-density wave. As the field is increased, the charge-density wave passes from a regime that is totally pinned to a regime where local depinning occurs without global depinning and then to a sliding regime. The ac response in all the regimes, metastability, hysteresis, and nonlinear behavior are discussed.