Comment on Existence of Wannier-Stark localization''

Journal Article · Thu Feb 15 04:00:00 EST 1990 · Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.41.3857· OSTI ID:6993717

Kleinman, L ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1081 (US)

In a recent paper Emin and Hart separated the potential of a constant electric field into two terms: a periodic sawtooth and a staircase. They argued that the sawtooth could be combined with the periodic crystal potential and that the staircase would not induce tunneling between the energy bands of the combined potential. We first show that this would, if true, result in an unresolvable paradox and then point out the subtle mathematical error in their proof. When it is corrected, one finds that the interband matrix elements of the staircase potential are nonzero for any number of unit cells in the crystal, including {ital N}{r arrow}{infinity}.

• OSTI ID: 6993717
• Journal Information: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (USA), Journal Name: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (USA) Vol. 41:6; ISSN 0163-1829; ISSN PRBMD
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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