Pinning of charge density waves by irradiation induced defects in orthorhombic TaS3

Abstract Effects of electron irradiation induced damage on dc conductivity, threshold field and complex dielectric constant at 9 GHz are investigated in a wide temperature range. Whereas the single particle gap in the low temperature phase is not influenced by irradiation, transport properties associated with collective excitation of charge density waves (CDW) are sensitive to the presence of new pinning centres. The results are discussed in the framework of the semiclassical model of Gruner, Zawadowski and Chaikin. The pinning frequency determined from the threshold field agrees well with that of calculated from the complex dielectric constant.