Shapiro steps in charge-density-wave states driven by ultrasound

Michiyasu Mori, Sadamichi Maekawa

Published 2022-09-08Version 1

We show that an ultrasound can induce the Shapiro steps (SS) in the charge-density-wave (CDW) state. When an ultrasound with frequency $\omega$ is applied with a dc bias-voltage, the SS appear at the current $I$ $\propto$ 2$n\omega$ with integer $n$. Although an ac voltage was previously used to induce the SS in the CDW state, the SS with the ac voltage with frequency $\omega$ appeared at $I\propto n\omega$ instead of 2$n\omega$. This is the difference between the ultrasound and the ac voltage. Since the \dvdi shows sharp peaks due to the SS, the drastic changes in the \iv curve will be applied to a highly sensitive detector of ultrasound.