Comment on “Atomic Structure, Energetics, and Dynamics of Topological Solitons in Indium Chains on Si(111) Surfaces”
The recent Letter by Zhang et al.[1] reported on a local defect structure for the charge density wave (CDW) along In wires formed on Si(111) [2,3]. This work interpreted the defect as the soliton excitation and addressed its atomic structure and energy. In this Comment, we point out that (i) the relationship between the defect and the local phase shift is not unique and not clear making its soliton origin elusive and (ii) the observation is not consistent with the previous reports on the soliton of the same system nor with the basic soliton theory.