Mesoscopic NbSe3 wires

We have fabricated wire structures with (sub)micron sizes in the charge-den sity wave conductor NbSe3. Electrical transport measurements include comple te mode-locking on Shapiro steps and show that the patterning has not affec ted the CDW material. Our mesoscopic wires show strong fluctuation and hyst eresis effects in the low-temperature current-voltage characteristics, as w ell as a strong reduction of the phase-slip voltage. This reduction can not be explained with existing models. We suggest that single phase-slip event s are responsible for a substantial reduction of the CDW strain in micron-s ized systems.