Phase slip and the motion of charge-density wave dislocations in NbSe₃

Abstract

The common view that a moving CDW behaves elastically except near current terminals, where phase slip occurs at a rate determined by the nucleation of dislocation loops, is shown to be in important respects inconsistent with experiment. An alternative model is developed, which allows the rate of phase slip to be limited by the climb velocity of dislocations created in the course of depinning. The model appears to account for the phase slip and strain distribution in NbSe 3 specimens of various lengths, and for other phenomena not readily explicable in conventional terms.