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arXiv:2503.22481 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Charge creation via quantum tunneling in one-dimensional Mott insulators: A numerical study of the extended Hubbard model

Thomas Hansen, Lars Bojer Madsen, Yuta Murakami

Published Jun 26, 2025• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

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 ($U$-$V$) 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 $V$. 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.

DOI
10.1103/r15c-ymgc

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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.
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.
Nonlinear response of a Mott insulator to external electric field, corresponding to dielectric breakdown phenomenon, is studied within of a one-dimensional half-filled Hubbard model. It is shown that in the limit of nearly spin-polarized insulator the decay rate of the ground state into excited holon-doublon pair can be evaluated numerically as well to high accuracy analytically. Results show that the threshold field depends on the charge gap as F(th)∝Δ(3/2). Numerical results on small systems indicate on the persistence of a similar mechanism for the breakdown for decreasing magnetization down to unpolarized system.
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 theoretically investigate the light absorption spectrum of two-dimensional (2D) Mott insulators. We employ the numerical diagonalization method to calculate the light absorption spectrum with using the effective Hamiltonian for the extended Hubbard model, which is valid when the on-site Coulomb interaction energy UUU is much larger than the nearest-neighbor transfer integral ttt and the nearest-neighbor Coulomb interaction energy VVV. For V=0V=0V=0, the absorption spectrum consists of a broad band with a width of about 16t16t16t and a sharp central peak, and the energy eigenstates contributing to the absorption spectrum do not have the antiferromagnetic (AF) spin order, when UUU is sufficiently larger than ttt. These features result from the spin-charge interplay inherent in the very strong correlation region where charge transfer term is dominant. With decreasing U∕tU∕tU∕t, the peak structure in absorption spectrum becomes unclear and some low energy eigenstates have the AF spin order, as a result of the spin-spin interaction term. For large V∕tV∕tV∕t, the dominant peak arises in the lower energy region of the spectrum. A large number of holon-doublon bound states, which have nearly the same charge but different spin structures, are responsible for this peak, in contrast to the conventional exciton state. This is also in contrast to the charge bound states in one-dimensional (1D) Mott insulators, where a single energy eigenstate dominates the optical transition moment as a result of the spin-charge separation. The essentially different absorption spectra between the 1D and 2D Mott insulators originate from the difference in the coupling between spin and charge degrees of freedom.
We study the real-time dynamics of a hole and doubly occupied site pair, namely, a holon and a doublon, in a 1D Hubbard insulator with on-site and nearest-neighbor Coulomb repulsion. Our analysis shows that the pair is long-lived and the expected decay mechanism to underlying spin excitations is actually inefficient. For a nonzero intersite Coulomb repulsion, we observe that part of the wave function remains in a bound state. Our study also provides insight on the holon-doublon propagation in real space. Because of the one-dimensional nature of the problem, these particles move in opposite directions even in the absence of an applied electric field. The potential relevance of our results to solar cell applications is discussed.