J. Phys. IV France 12 (2002) Pr9-307
DOI: 10.1051/jp4:20020421

Current inhomogeneity and effect of a transverse electric field in the CDW transport properties of quasi-one-dimensional compounds

A. Ayari¹ and P. Monceau<sup>1, 2

1</sup>  CRTBT, 25 avenue des Martyrs, BP. 166, 38042 Grenoble, France
²  LLB, CEA-CNRS, CEA-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France

Abstract
By the way of experimental measurements and numerical simulations, the effect of a transverse electric field on the non linear transport properties of charge density wave systems has been investigated. Our numerical simulations show that the dramatic reduction of the threshold depinnig field reported previously is only due to current injection inhomogeneity, i.e. a part of the transverse injected current flows longitudinally due to the anisotropic conductivity. We have therefore realized a submicron YbSe ₃ structure specifically designed to get rid of this inhomogeneity. In these conditions, we do not observe any reduction of the threshold field even for transverse currents one order of magnitude higher than predicted and used in Ref. [2].

© EDP Sciences 2002