Collective Modes and Electrical Conductivity in Incommensurate Spin Density Waves

Abstract

It is shown in a microscopic calculation that a translational spin wave mode in an incommensurate spin density wave (SDW) is shown to lead to collective conductivity similarly to the charge density wave case. Normal impurities cannot pin the SDW in low orders due to the uniform charge density whereas magnetic impurities give rise to pinning. The pinning frequency due to magnetic impurities is calculated. Possible mechanisms of damping and effects of interchain coupling are briefly discussed.