Commensurability-Dependent Transport of a Wigner Crystal in a Nanoconstriction

We present the first transport measurements of a classical Wigner crystal through a constriction formed by a split-gate electrode. The Wigner crystal is formed on the surface of superfluid helium confined in a microchannel. At low temperatures, the current is periodically suppressed with increasing split-gate voltage, resulting in peaklike transport features. We also present the results of molecular dynamics simulations that reproduce this phenomenon. We demonstrate that, at the split-gate voltages for which the current is suppressed, the electron lattice is arranged such that the stability of particle positions against thermal fluctuations is enhanced. In these configurations, the suppression of transport due to interelectron Coulomb forces becomes important.