Time-dependent nonequilibrium properties of a strongly correlated electron system driven by large electric fields is obtained by means of solving the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation for the many-body wave function numerically in one dimension. While the insulator-to-metal transition depends on the electric field and the interaction, the metallization is found to be described in terms of a universal Landau-Zener quantum tunneling among the many-body levels. These processes induces current oscillation for small systems, while give rise to finite resistivity through dissipation for larger systems/on longer time scales.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0304036,
title = {Breakdown of a Mott insulator -- non-adiabatic tunneling mechanism},
author = {Takashi Oka and Ryotaro Arita and Hideo Aoki},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0304036},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
5 pages, 5 figures, version to appear in Phys.Rev.Lett