(1) CNR–IMM, Z.I. VIII Strada 5, 95121 Catania, Italy
Abstract:
A method for the study of the electronic transport in strongly coupled electron-phonon systems is formalized and applied to
a model of polyyne chains biased through metallic Au leads. We derive a stationary non equilibrium polaronic theory in the
general framework of a variational
formulation. The numerical procedure we propose can be readily applied if the electron-phonon interaction in the device hamiltonian
can be approximated as an effective single particle electron hamiltonian. Using this approach, we predict that finite polyyne
chains should manifest an
insulator-metal transition driven by the non-equilibrium charging which inhibits the Peierls instability characterizing the
equilibrium state.