Appearance of the dielectric instability and its coexistence with the superconductivity in ultrathin metallic filaments with decreasing diameter

Some dielectric instability appears before the superconducting (s/c) transition of Hg, In, Ga, Sn filaments when their diameters are decreased to 20-30 Å. Above the s/c transition the differential conductivity of the filaments may be approximated by the formula σ = σ_a + σ_b exp [-E₀(T)/E], where the electric field E₀ is equal toabout 10-60 mV cm^-1, and falls abruptly before the s/c transition. There are conductivity oscillations along E in the s/c transition region. The results are interpreted in terms of Peierls instability and charge-density wave (CDW) conductivity.