CHARACTER OF ELECTRON REFLECTION AT A NORMAL METAL-PEIERLS SEMICONDUCTOR BOUNDARY

The reflection of electrons incident from a normal metal on the bounda ry of the metal with a quasi-one-dimensional conductor containing a ch arge-density wave (CDW) is investigated theoretically. It is shown tha t the reflection is not of an Andreev character but rather of a Bragg character. This is due to the fact that the CDW is actually an electro nic crystal, and its wave vector is a reciprocal lattice vector of the electronic crystal. The ratio of the intensities of the standard and Bragg reflection depends on the phase of the CDW. (C) 1997 American In stitute of Physics.