Nonlinear ac conductivity of interacting one-dimensional electron systems

We consider low-energy charge transport in one-dimensional electron systems with short-range interactions under the influence of a random potential. Combining renormalization group and instanton methods, we calculate the nonlinear ac conductivity and discuss the crossover between the nonanalytic field dependence of the electric current at zero frequency and the linear ac conductivity at small electric fields and finite frequency.

Figure 1

Hopping of kinks from position $i_0$ to $i_0+L_x∕\xi$ and back (full lines) in a time interval of length $L_y$. The lines parallel to the $y$ axis do not contribute to the action if the line tensions $s_x$ are neglected.

Figure 2

Different transport regimes in a disordered CDW or LL with dissipation as a function of field strength in units of $E_{\text{threshold}}={\Delta }_0∕p{e}_0{K}_{\mathrm{eff}}{\xi }_{\mathrm{loc}}$ and frequency: adiabatic quantum creep in A, quantum creep with increased current noise in QC, ac conductivity following a Mott-Halperin law in MH, and Mott-Halperin law with saturation for large field strengths in MHS.