Dynamics of a Bloch electron in a uniform electric field; Bloch oscillations

The dynamics of a Bloch electron in a spatially uniform electric field is investigated by employing a vector potential to represent the effect of the field. This method has the advantage of maintaining the translational periodicity of the Hamiltonian in the presence of the field, and avoids the diff...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physica B + C 1985-01, Vol.134 (1), p.228-232
Main Authors: Krieger, Joseph B., Iafrate, Gerald J.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:The dynamics of a Bloch electron in a spatially uniform electric field is investigated by employing a vector potential to represent the effect of the field. This method has the advantage of maintaining the translational periodicity of the Hamiltonian in the presence of the field, and avoids the difficulties associated with the use of a scalar potential. We find that both the tunneling probability to other bands and the ladder-like structure in the optical absorption are obtained without any assumption concerning the existence of Wannier-Stark energy levels.
ISSN:0378-4363
DOI:10.1016/0378-4363(85)90346-8