Dissipative Hot-spot Enabled Shock and Bounce Dynamics via Terahertz Quantum Quenches in Helical Edge States
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
2021-07-08 v2 Statistical Mechanics
Pattern Formation and Solitons
Abstract
We study quantum quenches of helical liquids with spin-flip inelastic scattering. Counterpropagating charge packets in helical edges can be created by an ultrashort electric pulse applied across a 2D topological insulator. Localized "hot spots" that form due to scattering enable two types of strongly nonlinear wave dynamics. First, propagating packets develop self-focusing shock fronts. Second, colliding packets with opposite charge can exhibit near-perfect retroreflection, despite strong dissipation. This leads to frequency doubling that could be detected experimentally from emitted terahertz radiation.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2009.06654,
title = {Dissipative Hot-spot Enabled Shock and Bounce Dynamics via Terahertz Quantum Quenches in Helical Edge States},
author = {Xinghai Zhang and Matthew S. Foster},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2009.06654},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
v2: added collision dynamics; 7+22 pages, 4+13 figures