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arXiv:quant-ph/0407013 · Physical Review Letters

Breakdown of an Electric-Field Driven System: A Mapping to a Quantum Walk

Takashi Oka, Norio Konno, Ryotaro Arita, Hideo Aoki

Published Mar 18, 2005• 101 citations
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Abstract

Quantum transport properties of electron systems driven by strong electric fields are studied by mapping the Landau-Zener transition dynamics to a quantum walk on a semi-infinite one-dimensional lattice with a reflecting boundary, where the sites correspond to energy levels and the boundary the ground state. Quantum interference induces a distribution localized around the ground state, and a delocalization transition occurs when the electric field is increased, which describes the dielectric breakdown in the original electron system.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.94.100602

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Quantum transport properties of electron systems driven by strong electric fields are studied by mapping the Landau-Zener transition dynamics to a quantum walk on a semi-infinite one-dimensional lattice with a reflecting boundary, where the sites correspond to energy levels and the boundary the ground state. Quantum interference induces a distribution localized around the ground state, and a delocalization transition occurs when the electric field is increased, which describes the dielectric breakdown in the original electron system.
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Nonlinear transport of electrons in strong electric fields, as typified by dielectric breakdown, is reformulated in terms of the ground-state decay rate originally studied by Schwinger in nonlinear QED. We discuss the effect of electron interaction on Zener tunneling by comparing the dielectric breakdown of the band insulator and the Mott insulator, where the latter is studied by the time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group. The relation with the Berry's phase theory of polarization is also established.
Application of a strong electric field to insulators induces a finite current. This phenomenon is called dielectric breakdown and is known as a fundamental nonequilibrium and nonlinear transport phenomenon in solids. Here, we study the dielectric breakdown of generic strongly correlated insulators in one dimension. Combining bosonization techniques with a quantum tunneling theory, we develop an effective field-theoretical description of dielectric breakdown using a non-Hermitian sine-Gordon theory. Then, we derive an analytic formula for the threshold field, which is a many-body generalization of the Landau-Zener formula. Importantly, we point out that the threshold field contains a previously overlooked factor originating from the charges of elementary excitations, which should be significant when a system has fractionalized excitations. We apply our results to integrable lattice models and confirm that our formula is valid in a broad range including the weak coupling regime, indicating its wide potential applicability. Our results unveil universal aspects of nonlinear and nonequilibrium transport phenomena in various strongly correlated insulators.
We study the nonequilibrium steady state of a Mott insulator coupled to a thermostat and driven by a constant electric field, starting from weak fields, until the dielectric breakdown, and beyond. We find that the conventional Zener picture does not describe the steady-state physics. In particular, the current at weak field is found to be controlled by the dissipation. Moreover, in connection with the electric-field-driven dimensional crossover, we find that the dielectric breakdown occurs when the field strength is on the order of the Mott gap of the corresponding lower-dimensional system. We also report a resonance and the meltdown of the quasiparticle peak when the field strength is half of this Mott gap.
The nonadiabatic quantum tunneling picture, which may be called the many-body Schwinger-Landau-Zener mechanism, for the dielectric breakdown of Mott insulators in strong electric fields is studied in the one-dimensional Hubbard model. The tunneling probability is calculated by a method due to Dykhne-Davis-Pechukas with an analytical continuation of the Bethe-ansatz solution for excited states to a non-Hermitian case. A remarkable agreement with the time-dependent density-matrix renormalization-group result is obtained.