Particle transport in space-periodic potentials in underdamped systems

We consider the motion of an underdamped Brownian particle in a tilted periodic potentialin a wide temperature range. Based on the previous data and the new simulation results weshow that the underdamped motion of particles in space-periodic potentials can beconsidered as overdamped motion in the velocity space in the effective double-wellpotential. Simple analytic expressions for the particle mobility and diffusion coefficientare derived with the use of the presented model. These accurately match numericalsimulation results.     

Diffusion coefficient for a Brownian particle in a periodic field of force: I. Large friction limit

The diffusion tensor for a Brownian particle in a periodic field of force is studied in the strong damping limit, in which the Smoluchowski equation is valid.A general relation between the diffusion tensor and the Smoluchowski “relaxation operator” is derived; the effect of the periodic force, at least in the simplest situation of diagonal and uniform friction, appears as a dressing of the bare particle mass to an effective tensor mass.From this the explicit form of the diffusion coefficient as a functional of the potential energy in the one-dimensional case is obtained, showing a temperature dependence which deviates at high temperatures from a simple Arrhenius behaviour.Finally, the expression for the mobility of the Brownian particle is derived, and by comparison with the expression for the diffusion coefficient the Einstein relation between diffusion and mobility is proved to be satisfied.     

Continuum limit of single-electron tunneling

We consider the continuum limit of the standard model for treating single-electron tunneling (SET) of electrons through a one-dimensional array of tunnel junctions. We show that the formalism reduces to the computation of the motion of overdamped particles undergoing potential gradient flow, with the potential being given by the full interacting free energy of the electrons in the system. We show that the tunneling coefficients in the SET model can be re-interpreted in terms of a diffusion coefficient and a temperature and that therefore the SET problem reduces to a fully self-consistent treatment of overdamped particle diffusion.     

Insulating behavior of a trapped ideal Fermi gas

We investigate theoretically and experimentally the center-of-mass motion of an ideal Fermi gas in a combined periodic and harmonic potential. We find a crossover from a conducting to an insulating regime as the Fermi energy moves from the first Bloch band into the band gap of the lattice. The conducting regime is characterized by an oscillation of the cloud about the potential minimum, while in the insulating case the center of mass remains on one side of the potential.     

Diffusion on random lattices

We study the motion of a point particle along the bonds of a two-dimensional random lattice, whose sites are randomly occupied with right and left rotators, which scatter the particle according to deterministic scattering rules. We consider both a Poisson (PRL) and a vectorized random lattice (VRL) and fixed as well as flipping scatterers. On both lattices, for fixed scatterers and equal concentrations of right and left rotators the same anomalous diffusion of the particle is obtained as before for the triangular lattice, where the mean square displacement is t, the diffusion process non-Gaussian, and the particle trajectories exhibit scaling behavior as at a percolation threshold. For unequal concentrations the particle is trapped exponentially rapidly. This system can be considered as an extreme case of the Lorentz lattice gases on regular lattices discussed before or as an example of the motion of a particle along cracks or (grain or cellular) boundaries on a two-dimensional surface.     

Quantum ohmic dissipation: Particle on a one-dimensional periodic lattice

We investigate the dynamics of a particle on a periodic lattice, coupled to phonons with ohmic dissipation. At T = 0 a symmetry breaking appears, which corresponds to a transition between a localized and a delocalized regime. For T > 0 we recover a diffusive motion for which the diffusion coefficient is computed.     

The non-Arrhenius migration of interstitial defects in bcc transition metals

Thermally activated migration of defects drives microstructural evolution of materials under irradiation. In the case of vacancies, the activation energy for migration is many times the absolute temperature, and the dependence of the diffusion coefficient on temperature is well approximated by the Arrhenius law. On the other hand the activation energy for the migration of self-interstitial defects, and particularly self-interstitial atom clusters, is very low. In this case a trajectory of a defect performing Brownian motion at or above room temperature does not follow the Arrhenius-like pattern of migration involving infrequent hops separated by the relatively long intervals of time during which a defect resides at a certain point in the crystal lattice. This article reviews recent atomistic simulations of migration of individual interstitial defects, as well as clusters of interstitial defects, and rationalizes the results of simulations on the basis of solutions of the multistring Frenkel–Kontorova model. The treatment developed in the paper shows that the origin of the non-Arrhenius migration of interstitial defects and interstitial defect clusters is associated with the interaction between a defect and the classical field of thermal phonons. To cite this article: S.L. Dudarev, C. R. Physique 9 (2008).     

Study of hydrogen chemisorbed on Raney-nickel by neutron inelastic spectroscopy

The motion of chemisorbed hydrogen on the Raney-nickel surface was studied by neutron inelastic spectroscopy. The peaks found at low energy transfers (below 320 cm^?1) are nearly identical to the spectrum of lattice frequencies of pure nickel. This means that each hydrogen atom is bound to only one nickel atom. The mean square amplitude of the bound proton was found to exceed that of nickel by 0.04 ± 0.02 Ų. A broad band found at 1120 cm^?1 (800 cm^?1 in the case of deuterium) is attributed to motions of hydrogen atoms relative to the nickel surface. An interpretation of this band is given in terms of harmonic approximation. An analysis of the shape of the elastic line has shown that no broadening could be detected with our instrument. This leads to an upper limit for the diffusion constant of the protons, D<5×10^?7 cm²/s, at room temperature.     

Uphill anomalous transport in a deterministic system with speed-dependent friction coefficient

We investigate the transport of a deterministic Brownian particle theoretically, which moves in simple onedimensional, symmetric periodic potentials under the influence of both a time periodic and a static biasing force. The physical system employed contains a friction coefficient that is speed-dependent. Within the tailored parameter regime, the absolute negative mobility, in which a particle can travel in the direction opposite to a constant applied force, is observed.This behavior is robust and can be maximized at two regimes upon variation of the characteristic factor of friction coefficient. Further analysis reveals that this uphill motion is subdiffusion in terms of localization(diffusion coefficient with the form D(t) ~t~(-1) at long times). We also have observed the non-trivially anomalous subdiffusion which is significantly deviated from the localization; whereas most of the downhill motion evolves chaotically, with the normal diffusion.     

Analytic study of the effect of persistence on a one-dimensional biased random walk

An analytic study of a one-dimensional biased random walk with correlations between nearest-neighbour steps is presented, both in a lattice model and in its continuous version. First, the treatment of the unbiased problem is recalled and the effect of correlations on the diffusion coefficient is discussed. Then the study is extended to the biased case. The problem is then completely determined by two independent parameters, the degree of correlations in the motion on the one hand and the value of the bias on the other. Both the velocity of the particle and its diffusion coefficient are computed. As a result, the velocity as well as the diffusion coefficient are enhanced when there are positive correlations (qualified as persistence) in the motion, and reduced in the opposite case.     

Nonlinear coherent dynamics of an atom in an optical lattice

We consider a simple model of the lossless interaction between a two-level single atom and a standing-wave single-mode laser field which creates a one-dimensional optical lattice. The internal dynamics of the atom is governed by the laser field, which is treated as classical with a large number of photons. The center-of-mass classical atomic motion is governed by the optical potential and the internal atomic degrees of freedom. The resulting Hamilton-Schrö dinger equations of motion are a five-dimensional nonlinear dynamical system with two integrals of motion, and the total atomic energy and the Bloch vector length are conserved during the interaction. In our previous papers, the motion of the atom has been shown to be regular or chaotic (in the sense of exponential sensitivity to small variations of the initial conditions and/or the system’s control parameters) depending on the values of the control parameters, atom-field detuning, and recoil frequency. At the exact atom-field resonance, the exact solutions for both the external and internal atomic degrees of freedom can be derived. The center-of-mass motion does not depend in this case on the internal variables, whereas the Rabi oscillations of the atomic inversion is a frequency-modulated signal with the frequency defined by the atomic position in the optical lattice. We study analytically the correlations between the Rabi oscillations and the center-of-mass motion in two limiting cases of a regular motion out of the resonance: (1) far-detuned atoms and (2) rapidly moving atoms. This paper is concentrated on chaotic atomic motion that may be quantified strictly by positive values of the maximal Lyapunov exponent. It is shown that an atom, depending on the value of its total energy, can either oscillate chaotically in a well of the optical potential, or fly ballistically with weak chaotic oscillations of its momentum, or wander in the optical lattice, changing the direction of motion in a chaotic way. In the regime of chaotic wandering, the atomic motion is shown to have fractal properties. We find a useful tool to visualize complicated atomic motion-Poincaré mapping of atomic trajectories in an effective three-dimensional phase space onto planes of atomic internal variables and momentum. The Poincaré mappings are constructed using the translational invariance of the standing laser wave. We find common features with typical nonhyperbolic Hamiltonian systems-chains of resonant islands of different sizes imbedded in a stochastic sea, stochastic layers, bifurcations, and so on. The phenomenon of the atomic trajectories sticking to boundaries of regular islands, which should have a great influence on atomic transport in optical lattices, is found and demonstrated numerically.     

Effective Hamiltonians for fastly driven tight-binding chains

We consider a single particle tunnelling in a tight-binding model with nearest-neighbour couplings, in the presence of a periodic high-frequency force. An effective Hamiltonian for the particle is derived using an averaging method resembling classical canonical perturbation theory. Three cases are considered: uniform lattice with periodic and open boundary conditions, and lattice with a parabolic potential. We find that in the latter case, interplay of the potential and driving leads to appearance of the effective next-nearest neighbour couplings. In the uniform case with periodic boundary conditions the second- and third-order corrections to the averaged Hamiltonian are completely absent, while in the case with open boundary conditions they have a very simple form, found before in some particular cases by S. Longhi (2008) [10]. These general results may found applications in designing effective Hamiltonian models in experiments with ultracold atoms in optical lattices, e.g. for simulating solid-state phenomena.     

Chaotic behavior of channeling particles

Channeling describes the collimated motion of energetic charged particles along the lattice plane or axis in a crystal. The energetic particles are steered through the channels formed by strings of atomic constituents in the lattice. In the case of planar channeling, the motion of a charged particle between the atomic planes can be periodic or quasiperiodic, such as a simple oscillatory motion in the transverse direction. In practice, however, the periodic motion of the channeling particles can be accompanied by an irregular, chaotic behavior. In this paper, the Moliere potential, which is considered as a good analytical approximation for the interaction of channeling particles with the rows of atoms in the lattice, is used to simulate the channeling behavior of positively charged particles in a tungsten (100) crystal plane. By appropriate selection of channeling parameters, such as the projectile energy E(0) and incident angle psi(0), the transition of channeling particles from regular to chaotic motion is demonstrated. It is argued that the fine structures that appear in the angular scan channeling experiments are due to the particles' chaotic motion.     

Diffusion in periodic potentials

We discuss the static and dynamic phenomena connected with the Brownian motion of a particle in a periodic potential. Specifically we consider the dynamic mobility and the dynamic structure factor. We show with numerical examples how translational and oscillatory motion show up in these quantities. The calculations are done for the onedimensional case. A main tool is the continued fraction expansion of the relevant correlation functions. It enables us, for example, to obtain numerically accurate results for the mobility in a cosine potential. Possible applications of this model lie in the fields of superionic conductors and molecular crystals with rotational diffusion.     

Dependence of chaotic diffusion on the size and position of holes

A particle driven by deterministic chaos and moving in a spatially extended environment can exhibit normal diffusion, with its mean square displacement growing proportional to the time. Here, we consider the dependence of the diffusion coefficient on the size and the position of areas of phase space linking spatial regions ('holes') in a class of simple one-dimensional, periodically lifted maps. The parameter dependent diffusion coefficient can be obtained analytically via a Taylor-Green-Kubo formula in terms of a functional recursion relation. We find that the diffusion coefficient varies non-monotonically with the size of a hole and its position, which implies that a diffusion coefficient can increase by making the hole smaller. We derive analytic formulas for small holes in terms of periodic orbits covered by the holes. The asymptotic regimes that we observe show deviations from the standard stochastic random walk approximation. The escape rate of the corresponding open system is also calculated. The resulting parameter dependencies are compared with the ones for the diffusion coefficient and explained in terms of periodic orbits.     

Anomalous temperature dependence of diffusion in crystals in time-periodic external fields

The features of the diffusion of particles under the action of an external periodic force in a crystal lattice have been studied using computer simulation. It has been shown that the temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficients is anomalous. Diffusion can increase with a decrease in the temperature in some temperature intervals. The positions and widths of these intervals depend on the frequency of the external field. It has been found that the diffusion coefficient in the presence of a periodic external field can be more than nine orders of magnitude larger than the usual diffusion coefficient at the same temperature. The physical reasons for this anomaly have been analyzed.     

Spectroscopy for cold atom gases in periodically phase-modulated optical lattices

The response of cold atom gases to small periodic phase modulation of an optical lattice is discussed. For bosonic gases, the energy absorption rate is given, within linear response theory, by the imaginary part of the current autocorrelation function. For fermionic gases in a strong lattice potential, the same correlation function can be probed via the production rate of double occupancy. The phase modulation gives thus direct access to the conductivity of the system, as a function of the modulation frequency. We give an example of application in the case of bosonic systems at zero temperature and discuss the link between the phase and amplitude modulation.     

Stability of Driven Systems with Growing Gaps, Quantum Rings, and Wannier Ladders

We consider a quantum particle in a periodic structure submitted to a constant external electromotive force. The periodic background is given by a smooth potential plus singular point interactions and has the property that the gaps between its bands are growing with the band index. We prove that the spectrum is pure point—i.e., trajectories of wave packets lie in compact sets in Hilbert space—if the Bloch frequency is nonresonant with the frequency of the system and satisfies a Diophantine-type estimate, or if it is resonant. Furthermore, we show that the KAM method employed in the nonresonant case produces uniform bounds on the growth of energy for driven systems.     

Atomic Landau-Zener tunneling in Fourier-synthesized optical lattices

We report on an experimental study of quantum transport of atoms in variable periodic optical potentials. The band structure of both ratchet-type asymmetric and symmetric lattice potentials is explored. The variable atom potential is realized by superimposing a conventional standing wave potential of lambda/2 spatial periodicity with a fourth-order multiphoton potential of lambda/4 periodicity. We find that the Landau-Zener tunneling rate between the first and the second excited Bloch band depends critically on the relative phase between the two spatial lattice harmonics.     

Diffusion in flashing periodic potentials

The one-dimensional overdamped Brownian motion in a symmetric periodic potential modulated by external time-reversible noise is analyzed. The calculation of the effective diffusion coefficient is reduced to the mean first passage time problem. We derive general equations to calculate the effective diffusion coefficient of Brownian particles moving in arbitrary supersymmetric potential modulated by: (i) an external white Gaussian noise and (ii) a Markovian dichotomous noise. For both cases the exact expressions for the effective diffusion coefficient are derived. We obtain acceleration of diffusion in comparison with the free diffusion case for fast fluctuating potentials with arbitrary profile and for sawtooth potential in case (ii). In this case the parameter region where this effect can be observed is given. We obtain also a finite net diffusion in the absence of thermal noise. For rectangular potential the diffusion slows down, for all parameters of noise and of potential, in comparison with the case when particles diffuse freely.