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Title: Nonequilibrium electronic transport in a one-dimensional Mott insulator

Journal Article · · Physical Review B
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]
  1. Institut fur Physikalische Chemie der RWTH
  2. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
  3. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
  4. University of Wyoming, Laramie
  5. Universite Paris Sud, Orsay, France
  6. ORNL

We calculate the nonequilibrium electronic transport properties of a one-dimensional interacting chain at half filling, coupled to noninteracting leads. The interacting chain is initially in a Mott insulator state that is driven out of equilibrium by applying a strong bias voltage between the leads. For bias voltages above a certain threshold we observe the breakdown of the Mott insulator state and the establishment of a steady-state elec- tronic current through the system. Based on extensive time-dependent density-matrix renormalization-group simulations, we show that this steady-state current always has the same functional dependence on voltage, independent of the microscopic details of the model and we relate the value of the threshold to the Lieb-Wu gap. We frame our results in terms of the Landau-Zener dielectric breakdown picture. Finally, we also discuss the real-time evolution of the current, and characterize the current-carrying state resulting from the breakdown of the Mott insulator by computing the double occupancy, the spin structure factor, and the entanglement entropy.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1009941
Journal Information:
Physical Review B, Vol. 82, Issue 20; ISSN 1098--0121
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English