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arXiv:1211.2698 · Journal of Physics Conference Series

Dielectric breakdown of Mott insulators – doublon production and doublon heating

Martin Eckstein, Philipp Werner

Published Mar 27, 2013• 28 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Using dynamical mean-field theory and the non-crossing approximation as impurity solver, we study the response of a Mott insulator to strong dc electric fields. The breakdown of the Mott insulating state is triggered by field-induced creation of doublon-hole pairs. In a previous investigation, Ref. [1], it was found that the system approaches a long-lived quasi-steady state in which the current is time-independent although the number of carriers constantly increases. Here we investigate and clarify the nature of this state, which exists only because thermalization is slow in the Hubbard model at strong coupling. The current is time-independent because doublons and holes have an infinite temperature distribution. Evidence for this fact is obtained from spectral functions and by comparing the electric current with the field-induced doublon-hole creation rate. Implications to real experiments, in systems with energy dissipation, are discussed.

DOI
10.1088/1742-6596/427/1/012005

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Using dynamical mean-field theory and the non-crossing approximation as impurity solver, we study the response of a Mott insulator to strong dc electric fields. The breakdown of the Mott insulating state is triggered by field-induced creation of doublon-hole pairs. In a previous investigation, Ref. [1], it was found that the system approaches a long-lived quasi-steady state in which the current is time-independent although the number of carriers constantly increases. Here we investigate and clarify the nature of this state, which exists only because thermalization is slow in the Hubbard model at strong coupling. The current is time-independent because doublons and holes have an infinite temperature distribution. Evidence for this fact is obtained from spectral functions and by comparing the electric current with the field-induced doublon-hole creation rate. Implications to real experiments, in systems with energy dissipation, are discussed.
Doublon-hole pair production which takes place during dielectric breakdown in a Mott insulator subject to a strong laser or a static electric field is studied in the one-dimensional Hubbard model. Two nonlinear effects cause the excitation, i.e., multi-photon absorption and quantum tunneling. Keldysh crossover between the two mechanisms occurs as the field strength and photon energy is changed. The calculation is done analytically by the Landau-Dykhne method in combination with the Bethe ansatz solution and the results are compared with those of the time dependent density matrix renormalization group. Using this method, we calculate distribution function of the generated doublon-hole pairs and show that it drastically changes as we cross the Keldysh crossover line. After calculating the tunneling threshold for several representative one-dimensional Mott insulators, possible experimental tests of the theory is proposed such as angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy of the upper Hubbard band in the quantum tunneling regime. We also discuss the relation of the present theory with a many-body extension of electron-positron pair production in nonlinear quantum electrodynamics known as the Schwinger mechanism.
Using nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory, we compute the time evolution of the current in a Mott insulator after a strong electric field is turned on. We observe the formation of a quasistationary state in which the current is almost time independent although the system is constantly excited. At moderately strong fields this state is stable for quite long times. The stationary current exhibits a threshold behavior as a function of the field, in which the threshold increases with the Coulomb interaction and vanishes as the metal-insulator transition is approached.
Doublon-hole pair production, which takes place during dielectric breakdown in a Mott insulator subject to a strong laser or a static electric field, is studied in the one-dimensional Hubbard model. Two nonlinear effects cause the excitation, i.e., multiphoton absorption and quantum tunneling. Keldysh crossover between the two mechanisms occurs as the field strength and photon energy are changed. The calculation is done analytically by the Landau-Dykhne method in combination with the Bethe ansatz solution, and the results are compared with those of the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group. Using this method, we calculate the distribution function of the generated doublon-hole pairs and show that it drastically changes as we cross the Keldysh crossover line. After calculating the tunneling threshold for several representative one-dimensional Mott insulators, possible experimental tests of the theory are proposed, such as angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy of the upper Hubbard band in the quantum tunneling regime. We also discuss the relationship of the present theory with a many-body extension of electron-positron pair production in nonlinear quantum electrodynamics, known as the Schwinger mechanism.
Doublon-hole pair production which takes place during dielectric breakdown in a Mott insulator subject to a strong laser or a static electric field is studied in the one-dimensional Hubbard model. Two nonlinear effects cause the excitation, i.e., multi-photon absorption and quantum tunneling. Keldysh crossover between the two mechanisms occurs as the field strength and photon energy is changed. The calculation is done analytically by the Landau-Dykhne method in combination with the Bethe ansatz solution and the results are compared with those of the time dependent density matrix renormalization group. Using this method, we calculate distribution function of the generated doublon-hole pairs and show that it drastically changes as we cross the Keldysh crossover line. After calculating the tunneling threshold for several representative one-dimensional Mott insulators, possible experimental tests of the theory is proposed such as angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy of the upper Hubbard band in the quantum tunneling regime. We also discuss the relation of the present theory with a many-body extension of electron-positron pair production in nonlinear quantum electrodynamics known as the Schwinger mechanism.
We study the effect of strong DC and pulsed electric fields on a Mott insulating system with coupling to optical phonons. A DC field of the order of the gap induces a metallic state characterized by polaronic features in the gap region and a partially inverted population. In this quasi-steady state, the field-induced doublon-hole production is balanced by a phonon-enhanced doublon-hole recombination. The photo-excitation of carriers by a pulsed field leads to similar modifications of the electronic structure in the gap region, and an associated reduction of the doublon life-time. We demonstrate that the field-induced localization of electrons effectively enhances the phonon coupling, an effect which should be measureable with time-resolved photo-emission spectroscopy.
Charge creation via quantum tunneling, i.e. dielectric breakdown, is one of the most fundamental and significant phenomena arising from strong light(field)-matter coupling. In this work, we conduct a systematic numerical analysis of quantum tunneling in one-dimensional Mott insulators described by the extended (UUU-VVV) Hubbard model. We discuss the applicability of the analytical formula for doublon-holon (DH) pair production, previously derived for the one-dimensional Hubbard model, which highlights the relationship between the tunneling threshold, the charge gap, and the correlation length. We test the formulas ability to predict both DH pair production and energy increase rate. Using tensor-network-based approaches, we demonstrate that the formula provides accurate predictions in the absence of excitonic states facilitated by the nearest-neighbor interaction VVV. However, when excitonic states emerge, the formula more accurately describes the rate of energy increase than the DH pair creation rate and in both cases gets improved by incorporating the exciton energy as the effective gap.