Visual observation of Zener tunneling

We experimentally investigate photonic Zener tunneling between the bands of a waveguide array by directly monitoring the propagating light inside this structure. For strong transverse index gradients we observe Zener breakdown as regular outbursts of radiation escaping from the Bloch oscillations. Tunneling to higher order photonic bands and Bloch oscillations in different bands have been detected.     

Dynamics of Bloch–Zener Oscillations with Tuning Gap

In this study, the transient dynamics of Bloch–Zener oscillations (BZOs) in a 1D qubit chain with a controllable band gap are explored. The chain consists of alternating site energies and is subjected to a constant external field. Several tight-binding models were analyzed, including Bloch and Landau–Zener models, to understand the  BZOs mechanism. The findings revealed that the band gaps played a crucial role in bridging the intriguing interplay between Bloch oscillations and Landau–Zener transitions. The motion of carriers in real and quasi-momentum spaces is explored and the time evolution of occupancy in mini-bands is calculated. A linearly time-dependent way of tuning the gap is also proposed and non-periodic motion is observed. When the chain is coupled to dispersionless optical phonons, strong coupling leads to large phonon displacements and localizes the carrier wave packets of the qubit states. The findings provide new insights into the behavior of BZOs in complex systems and suggest avenues for future studies.     

Optical Bloch oscillation and resonant Zener tunneling in one-dimensional quasi-period structures containing single negative materials

We studied the optical Bloch oscillation and resonant Zener tunneling in macroscopic quasi-period structures of alternatively stratified single negative and dielectric slabs. By a decrease in the thicknesses of the dielectric slabs, the electronic potential of crystals subjected to external dc electric fields is mimicked and the optical Wannier-Stark ladder (WSL) is realized. Both scattering states and the time-resolved transmission of a short pulse are provided to show the existence of the optical analogue of electronic Bloch oscillation. At a critical gradient, the resonant photon Zener tunneling is demonstrated both from the amplitude and the time delay in the transmitted signal of a short pulse.     

Plasmonic Zener tunneling in metal-dielectric waveguide arrays

We elucidate in this Letter plasmonic Zener tunneling (PZT) in metal-dielectric waveguide arrays (MDWAs) by using numerical simulations and theoretical analyses. PZT in MDWAs occurs at the waveguide entrance and wherever the beam completes Bloch oscillations, because the bandgap between the first and second bands is minimal at the center of the first Brillouin zone. This feature significantly differs from that of optical Zener tunneling in dielectric waveguide arrays. The dependence of the simulated tunneling rate on the gradient of the relative permittivity of the dielectric layers correlates with the tunneling theory, thus confirming the occurrence of PZT in MDWAs.     

Mode conversion, Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling with light by means of the Sagnac effect

Propagation of light in a rotating optical ring resonator shows striking similarities with magnetic flux induced electron propagation in small metal rings. This correspondence leads us to predict the possibility of Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling with light in sufficiently high-Q rotating ring resonators.     

Bloch-Zener oscillations across a merging transition of Dirac points

Bloch oscillations are a powerful tool to investigate spectra with Dirac points. By varying band parameters, Dirac points can be manipulated and merged at a topological transition toward a gapped phase. Under a constant force, a Fermi sea initially in the lower band performs Bloch oscillations and may Zener tunnel to the upper band mostly at the location of the Dirac points. The tunneling probability is computed from the low-energy universal Hamiltonian describing the vicinity of the merging. The agreement with a recent experiment on cold atoms in an optical lattice is very good.     

Nonlinear dynamics of semiclassical spin in a time-dependent magnetic field

The dynamics of magnetic nanoclusters (or molecules) with a large spin in a magnetic field whose strength varies in proportion to time is analyzed. Such a field breaks the symmetry relative to rotations through 2π, as well as clockwise and counterclockwise rotations, and induces a number of new coherent quantum effects in the spin dynamics, such as the formation of a band energy spectrum with continuous spin states or the emergence of “Bloch” oscillations in spin precession and interband Zener tunneling. Bloch oscillations are manifested in experiment as equidistant identical jumps on the magnetization curve. The interband Zener tunneling gives rise to additional jumps and peaks on the susceptibility of the system.     

Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling in two-dimensional photonic lattices

We report on the first experimental observation of photonic Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling in two-dimensional periodic systems. We study the propagation of an optical beam in a square lattice superimposed on a refractive index ramp. We observe oscillations of the beam inside the first Brilloin zone and tunneling of light from the first to the higher-order bands of the lattice band gap spectrum.     

Bloch oscillations in one-dimensional photonic crystal coupled microcavity composed of single-negative materials

We have studied the propagation properties of electromagnetic waves in one-dimensional photonic crystal coupled microcavity structure composed of single-negative materials. Two Wannier-Stark ladders can be obtained by employing only one type of microcavity. The dynamics behavior of a Gaussian pulse transmitting through the structure is simulated theoretically. We demonstrated for the first time that even in this multilayered structure completely made of single-negative materials, the optical Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling can also be attained.     

Quantum transport for Bloch electrons in homogeneous time dependent electric fields

Quantum Transport Equations for Bloch electrons interacting with randomly distributed impurities in the presence of a homogeneous electric field of arbitrary strength and time dependence are derived. The equations account for all possible quantum effects to lowest nonzero order in the scattering strength, including intra and interband scattering, interband Zener tunneling and non-linear transient transport, and contain effects previously not anticipated, such as coherent impurity scattering, and field and time dependent scattering matrix elements.     

Ground-state decay rate for the Zener breakdown in band and Mott insulators

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.     

Bose-Einstein condensate in a honeycomb optical lattice: fingerprint of superfluidity at the Dirac point

Mean-field Bloch bands of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a honeycomb optical lattice are computed. We find that the topological structure of the Bloch bands at the Dirac point is changed completely by atomic interaction of arbitrary small strength: the Dirac point is extended into a closed curve and an intersecting tube structure arises around the original Dirac point. These tubed Bloch bands are caused by the superfluidity of the system. Furthermore, they imply the inadequacy of the tight-binding model to describe an interacting Boson system around the Dirac point and the breakdown of adiabaticity by interaction of arbitrary small strength.     

稳压管伏安特性测量中电表的正确接法

研究电流表接法对稳压二极管伏安特性测量结果的影响。理论分析和实验研究表明,测量稳压二极管的伏安特性时,在稳压管的正向死区和反向截止区电流表应该内接,在其正向导通区和反向击穿区电流表应该外接。这样,只要电流表内阻足够小且电压表内阻足够大,测量系统误差就远小于1%。     

The lifetime of Wannier ladder states

I study the width of the Wannier ladder states, i.e, Bloch electrons in external homogeneous field. For periodic potentials with a finite number of gaps, a formula for the width is obtained showing that the width vanishes exponentially fast with the field in accordance with Zener tunneling. The case of infinitely many gaps is studied qualitatively, and it is argued that although the width decreases exponentially “on the average”, the detailed bahavior is very complicated. In particular the width oscillates over different orders of magnitude as the field changes slightly. The oscillations are a consequence of a resonance phenomenon.     

Terahertz conductivity and possible BLOCH gain in semiconductor superlattices

We have investigated terahertz emission due to dynamical electron transport in wide-miniband GaAs/Al(0.3)Ga0.7As superlattices. By noting that the time-domain THz emission spectroscopy inherently measures the step-response of the electron system to the bias electric field, the obtained THz spectra were compared with the high-frequency conductivities predicted for miniband transport. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment strongly supports that the THz gain due to Bloch oscillating electrons persists at least up to 1.7 THz. It was also found that Zener tunneling into the second miniband sets the high-frequency limit to the THz gain for the samples studied here.     

Effects of strong electric fields in a polyacetylene chain

In this work, we study the effects related to the creation of electron/hole pairs via application of an external electric field that acts on a pristine trans-polyacetylene molecular chain at zero-temperature. This phenomenon is termed Schwinger–Landau–Zener (SLZ) effect and arises when a physical system, which can even be the vacuum, is under the action of a strong, static and spatially homogeneous electric field. Initially, we investigate how the electrical conductivity of the polyacetylene changes with the applied field, by considering the carriers production as well as the variation of the interband gap according to certain ab initio models. Next, we analyse the competition between the SLZ effect and another one associated with the incidence of an uniform electric field on one-dimensional crystals – the Bloch oscillations. We evaluate the conditions in which these latter can be destroyed by the particles created through the same field that induces them, and verify the possibility of occurrence of the Bloch oscillations inside the trans-polyacetylene with frequencies equal to or higher than the terahertz scale.     

Bloch Oscillations of Two-Component Bose-Einstein Condensates in Optical Lattices

We study the Bloch oscillations of two-component Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in spin-dependent optical lattices. The influence of the intercomponent atom interaction on the system is discussed in detail Accelerated breakdown of the Bloch oscillations and revival phenomena are found respectively for the repulsive and attractive case. For both the cases, the system will finally be set in a quantum self-trapping state due to dynamical instability.     

Unidirectional optical Bloch oscillations in asymmetric waveguide arrays

We present an analytical proof of the existence of unidirectional optical Bloch oscillations in a waveguide array system. It is shown that the presence of nonreciprocity in the system allows for a complete normal-mode dephasing in one of the propagation directions, resulting in a unidirectional breakdown in Bloch oscillations. A model system consisting of an array of transversely magnetized asymmetric Si/SiO2 waveguides with a magneto-optic cover layer is presented. Large index contrasts between film and cover are critical for practical realizations.     

Quantum‐optical analogies using photonic structures

Engineered photonic waveguides have provided in the past decade an extremely rich laboratory tool to visualize with optical waves the classic analogues of a wide variety of coherent quantum phenomena encountered in atomic, molecular or condensed‐matter physics. As compared to quantum systems, optics offers the rather unique advantage of a direct mapping of the wave function evolution in coordinate space by simple fluorescence imaging or scanning tunneling optical microscopy techniques. In this contribution recent theoretical and experimental advances in the field of quantum‐optical analogies are reviewed. Special attention is devoted to some relevant optical analogies based on the use of curved photonic structures, including: coherent destruction of tunneling in driven bistable potentials; coherent population transfer and adiabatic passage in laser‐driven multilevel atomic systems; quantum decay control and Zeno dynamics; electronic Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling, Anderson localization and dynamic localization in crystalline potentials.     

First-principles approach to insulators in finite electric fields

We describe a method for computing the response of an insulator to a static, homogeneous electric field. It consists of iteratively minimizing an electric enthalpy functional expressed in terms of occupied Bloch-like states on a uniform grid of k points. The functional has equivalent local minima below a critical field E(c) that depends inversely on the density of k points; the disappearance of the minima at E(c) signals the onset of Zener breakdown. We illustrate the procedure by computing the piezoelectric and nonlinear dielectric susceptibility tensors of III-V semiconductors.