Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Max-Planck-Institut fur Physik komplexer Systeme, Nothnitzer Strasse 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany
2
Departamento de Fsica, Universidad de los Andes, A. A. 4976, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia
Received 8 August 2000; revised manuscript received 25 June 2001; published 25 September 2001
Irregular scattering at harmonically driven one-dimensional potential wells is studied both on the classical
and the quantum level. We show that an ac-driven single square well, and a smooth well with oscillating
bottom, are sufficient to generate chaotic scattering. For a square well with oscillating bottom, we introduce the
concept of pseudointegrable scattering. The quantum dynamics of these models is treated using Floquet scattering theory, which is exact for arbitrary amplitude and frequency of the driving. In the deep quantum regime,
scattering is dominated by multiphoton exchanges with the driving field, leading to complex resonance structures in transmission and reflection. For strong and fast driving, the ac-driven square well develops an effective
double-well potential that introduces coherent tunneling in the scattering. We identify signatures of classical
chaotic scattering in a phase-space representation of the quantum dynamics.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.64.046218
I. INTRODUCTION
Present address: Institut fur Theoretische Physik, Universitat Regensburg, 93040 Regensburg, Germany.
1063-651X/2001/644/04621825/$20.00
low frequency, approximations 8. They are clearly not suitable to access the nonlinear regime where a nontrivial classical dynamics can be expected to affect the quantummechanical behavior.
An adequate framework to treat quantum systems, subject
to periodic driving without any restriction of amplitude or
frequency, is the Floquet formalism 911. While it is more
well known in the context of bound systems, it can in fact be
generalized to scattering problems 9. The enormous possibilities a time-dependent scattering theory, based on the Floquet approach, offers, have barely been exploited. To be
sure, there exist a few recent works where it is employed to
elucidate the quantum signatures of classical chaotic scattering 12,13. There, however, the driving is chosen in the
form of kicks. This facilitates numerical studies but is far
from experimental reality where the driving almost exclusively is harmonic. Quantum scattering at harmonically oscillating potentials, in turn, has been studied in the Floquet
formalism 14 but without considering the possibility of irregular scattering on the classical level and its quantummechanical consequences. A purely classical study of scattering at harmonically driven wells and barriers, on the other
hand, has recently been presented in Ref. 15. A semiclassical treatment of driven systems with emphasis on tunneling
can be found in Ref. 16.
In this work we study complex scattering at harmonically
oscillating potentials, both classically and quantum mechanically. We intend to demonstrate that also in mesoscopic
physics, a periodic driving allows one to see quantum irregular scattering and other nonlinear phenomena in a surprisingly simple, one-dimensional setting. We devise a few models that in their spatial structure are inspired by typical
layered semiconductor nanostructures, single square or
smooth wells in the dimension across the layers, and which
have a harmonic driving in common. The driving can be
localized in the scattering region or can be spatially homogeneous like an ac voltage. For these systems, we present a
detailed analysis of the classical dynamics to show that they
indeed support irregular or at least pseudointegrable scattering, and exhibit a rich scenario of mixed dynamics in the
transition regime.
This implies that also on the quantum level, numerical
64 046218-1
We focus on two different representative classes of onedimensional time-periodic scattering systems: Systems in
which the entire scattering potential is restricted to a compact
interaction region, and systems in which the time-dependent
part of the potential is modeled after an ac driving.
A. Systems with local driving
2 /T.
The function f (x) defines the shape of the vertically oscillating potential. The parameters V 0 and V 1 denote, respectively, the depth or height of the time-independent part of
the potential and the amplitude of the oscillation. A vertically oscillating potential provides a simple model of a capacitive coupling of an ac gate voltage to the timeindependent potential V 0 f (x). The factorization of the
potential enables considerable computational simplifications.
Specifically, we shall choose f (x) as a square well
f x L x ,
f x
1
cosh x/L 2
qE/ 2 m.
As a specific static potential shape f (x), we shall again consider the square well 3.
All the potentials mentioned in this section, except Eq.
6, are consistent with the general form
V x,t V 0 f 0 x V 1 f 1 x g t ,
or a smooth well
046218-2
with the spatial shapes f 0,1 depending on x only via x/L, and
g depending on time only via t. Scaling all variables accordingly,
x
x
,
L
p
,
Lm
V 0,1
t t,
V 0,1
m 2L 2
E
m 2L 2
p 2
0 f 0 x V
1 f 1 x g t
V
2
10
with V 0 0 and V 1 V 0 . Despite the driving, the flat bottom of the potential does not allow for a change of the kinetic energy within the well. Therefore, changes of the momentum can occur only when a trajectory passes one of the
steps of the potential at x 1, and then are discontinuous
themselves. This enables us to formulate the entire scattering
dynamics as a discrete map, relating successive passages
across or reflections off the steps 15: The total energy in 1 , up or down, with
side the well can differ by at most 2V
respect to its value upon entering the well. This may prevent
an exit, resulting in specular reflection off either one of the
potential steps. It can occur for an arbitrary number of times,
until a potential step is overcome again and the trajectory
leaves without returning. Note, however, that the times of
touching or crossing the steps have no simple relation to the
period T of the driving. Therefore, this map has nothing to do
with the Poincare surfaces of section at t n nT, underlying
the stroboscopic phase-space plots.
Trajectories starting inside the well with an initial kinetic
1 can never acquire a positive total enenergy p 2 /2 V 0 V
ergy. They are trapped and inaccessible from outside. The
same is true of trajectories with a higher kinetic energy if the
time of flight from one wall of the well to the other is an
integer multiple of the period of the potential,
p l
1
,
l
11
0 V
1 cos t 0)0
and the initial phase t 0 fulfills p n 2 /2(V
Fig. 1. In these cases, the dynamics is identical to that
inside a square well with infinitely high walls, and therefore
integrable. By contrast, trajectories starting from one of the
walls within the same time intervals, but with a momentum
slightly different from those given in the resonance condition
11, will only stay a finite, if long, time in the interaction
region. Therefore, this part of phase space is accessible to
scattering trajectories. A phase-space portrait is presented in
Fig. 2.
046218-3
the long-time asymptote of the dwell-time distribution is algebraic, with an exponent 3 Fig. 5, owing to the resonance mechanism explained above. It is typical for a dynamics dominated by parabolic points 31 and has been
observed in a wide variety of systems ranging from a driven
square barrier enclosed in a potential box 32 and nonchaotic billiard chains 33 through hydrodynamical flow 34.
This phenomenon becomes more pronounced if the time
windows during which nearly trapped trajectories can escape
vertical shaded rectangles in Fig. 3 are short compared to
the period of the driving. That is the case, in turn, if the
bottom of the barrier, at its highest position during each
1
cycle, almost reaches the top of the well, i.e., if V 0 V
FIG. 4. Outgoing vs incoming momentum for a vertically oscillating square well, Eq. 10, with V 0 104 and V 1 0.999
104 .
046218-4
V x ,t
1 cos t
V 0 V
.
cosh x 2
12
13
In particular,
FIG. 7. Outgoing vs incoming momentum for a vertically oscillating smooth well, Eq. 12, with V 0 4/9 and V 1 102 V 0 .
Lower panels are successive magnifications of the uppermost one.
qE
mL 2
14
FIG. 8. Stroboscopic phase-space plot a and outgoing vs incoming momentum b, for a vertically oscillating smooth well, Eq. 12,
0 V
1 4/9. In b, lower panels are successive magnifications of the uppermost one.
with V
046218-6
046218-7
0.04 and 1.6 b. The bold lines in panel a are the separatrices between stable bound motion inside the well and scattering
trajectories.
1
T
This time-averaged potential is different from any instantaneous shape of the potential 13. In particular, if the ampli-
V
V x
15
dt V x,t .
V
V x
/
,
arccos 1x
,
0,
,
x 1
else,
16
/
,
arccos 1x
1,
x
/
arccos 1x
/
,
arccos 1x
0,
,
x 1
1,
x
17
else.
046218-8
out S in .
18
S U 0 t 0 SU 0 t 0 .
19
T tot E
T l E ,
R tot E
R l E ,
20
FIG. 12. Outgoing vs incoming momentum for a laterally oscillating square well, Eq. 13, at the same parameter values as in panels a
and b of Fig. 11. Lower panels are successive magnifications of the respective uppermost ones.
046218-9
FIG. 13. Dwell-time distributions P(t ) not normalized for a laterally oscillating square well, Eq. 13, at the same parameter values as
in panels a and b of Fig. 11. The straight line in panel a corresponds to an algebraic decay P(t )t 2.24, and that in panel b to an
exponential decay.
x 0
,n
m
2 2k n
1/2
e ik n ( )x ,
21
0
,n S ,n S n,n .
0
22
24
25
T nn n S n,n 2 ,
R nn n S n,n 2 .
23
046218-10
FIG. 16. Outgoing vs incoming momentum a and dwell-time distribution P(t ) not normalized, panel b for a laterally oscillating
square well, Eq. 13, at the same parameter values as in Fig. 15. The straight line in b corresponds to an algebraic decay P(t )t 7.64.
H p,x;t
p2
V x,t
H m p,x e im t , 26
2m
m
has only a small number of nonvanishing Fourier components H m 17,45. For systems with a locally confined driving, Eq. 1, where the only nonzero components are those
with m0, 1, the (t,t ) method works optimally.
In ac-driven systems described by the potential 5, a representation that allows for asymptotically free states is
reached by performing a Kramers-Henneberger transformation, see Appendix A. The time-dependent scattering theory
sketched in Sec. IV A then applies directly. The transformation, however, destroys the factorization of the potential into
separate space and time dependences, see Eq. 6. As a result, the discontinuities of the potential characterizing a
square well carry over to the time dependence, leading to an
exceedingly slow decay H m 1/ m , as shown in Appendix D see also Ref. 14. This problem is circumvented by
calculating the Floquet operator in the momentum gauge, see
Appendix A 1, where the time dependence is deferred to a
vector potential appearing only in the kinetic energy. In this
gauge the eigenfunctions of the kinetic energy, and thus the
asymptotic states, are plane waves with a time-periodic
phase factor, known as Volkov states 47. In order to perform the stroboscopic wave-packet propagation, where timeindependent asymptotic states are required, one transforms
the Floquet operator from the momentum to the acceleration
gauge, see Appendix A 2.
Besides the numerical calculation of transmission and reflection probabilities, T l (E) and R l (E), it has proven useful
to consider a heuristic dwell time in units of the period T,
W E;
j0
/2
/2
dx x, jT 2 ,
28
Time periodic
scattering systems
Energy conserved
Quasienergy conserved
S matrix: S ;
, : scattering channels
S matrix: S ,m; ,n
, : scattering channels
m, n: Floquet channels
Incoming and
outgoing energies
E outE in
Incoming and
outgoing energies
E outE inl
lmn integer
2 /T: driving frequency
27
FIG. 17. Dwell time W Eq. 27, panel a, total transmission T tot b, and transmissions T 0 c and T 1 d into the elastic and the first
inelastic channel, respectively, as functions of the incoming energy E in for a square well with oscillating bottom, Eq. 10, with V2,
0.9, L15, 1, m0.5, and V 1 0 static case, dotted line V 1 0.2 full, 1 dashed, 2 dot-dashed. Resonant energies E in( ,n in)
are marked by vertical lines for n in1 full lines, 2 dashed, and 3 dot-dashed.
29
046218-12
FIG. 20. Dwell time W a, total transmission T tot b, transmissions T 0 c, and T 1 d into the elastic and the first inelastic channel,
respectively, as functions of the incoming energy E in for a smooth well with oscillating bottom, Eq. 12, with V2, 0.9, L15,
1, m0.5, and V 1 0.3 full line, 1.5 dashed, 3 dot-dashed. Resonant energies E in( ,n in) are marked by vertical lines for n in1 full
lines, 2 dashed, 3 dot-dashed, and 4 dotted; dimensionless units used.
046218-13
FIG. 23. Overlap of a scattering wave packet with the right full
line and the left half dashed of the scattering region, vs time. The
wave packet came in from the left with an energy near the center of
the tunneling doublet visible in Fig. 22. The scattering potential and
its parameters are as in Fig. 22.
046218-14
046218-15
A representative example of classical-quantum correspondence in terms of the Wigner function is shown in Fig. 25.
We have chosen parameter values where the classical dynamics cf. Fig. 11 is characterized by the coexistence of a
global chaotic scattering area with a large regular island,
inaccessible from the asymptotic regions, embedded in it. In
the figure, the corresponding quantum phase space is represented in terms of the Wigner function for the wave packet,
averaged over a few time steps while it is mainly located
within the scattering region.
In the gray-scale presentation chosen, the incoming and
the directly reflected components of the wave packet stand
out as exceedingly bright regions, to the left of the scattering
region, at positive and negative momentum. The interaction
region itself can be discerned due to a population density
generally higher inside than outside. Superposed, one distinguishes small-scale ripples, which give evidence of the coherence of the Wigner function and prove strongly parameter
dependent, from oscillations of larger wavelength inside the
scattering region. A comparison with the classical phasespace portrait, Fig. 11, suggests that these oscillations are
signatures of the classical tori limiting the chaotic area from
below, and of the regular island inside it. This is confirmed
by our repeating, as a bold closed line, the outline of the
island in the Wigner-function plot.
Given that this island is inaccessible for classical scattering trajectories, it surprises that it nevertheless shows up in
the phase-space representation of a quantum scattering wave
packet. Evidently, it can only be accessed by tunneling
across the mixed boundary region separating the island from
the chaotic sea. Indeed, we are here not yet far inside the
semiclassical regime where such tunnel processes would be
exponentially suppressed. A similar case of a classical regular island influencing the quantum scattering has been reported in Ref. 13.
V. CONCLUSION
046218-16
30
After the Kramers-Henneberger transformation the timeperiodic driving leads to a laterally oscillating potential
Vx cos(t). A similar double-barrier potential without
a well between the barriers has been studied in Ref. 56
using the transfer-matrix approach for piecewise constant potentials 57.
The effect of the ac driving on the total transmission and
the effective dwell time, Eq. 27, is depicted in Fig. 27. The
different curves in both panels show the evolution of transmission and dwell time as a function of the incoming energy
for increasing driving strength up to intermediate values of
. For 0, there is a maximum in the transmission and in
the effective dwell time at E0.4, owing to resonant tunneling through the static double barrier. For finite driving this
maximum is suppressed. Instead, distinct structures arise that
are particularly clearly visible in the dwell time. They result
from photonic coupling to quasibound states formed in the
time-varying scattering potential at energies below the
energy of the dwell time peaks. Therebye, the total transmission can be changed considerably, turning for instance
the transmission maximum at E0.85 into a sharp dip in the
presence of an ac field. This shows that it is possible to use
an ac driving for the control of transmission through quantum wells.
FIG. 27. Total transmission T tot upper panel and dwell time W
lower panel as functions of the incoming energy E for the laterally
oscillating double-barrier well, Fig. 26 and Eq. 30, with V 0
1, L 0 5, V 1 0.5, L 1 6, 1, m1, and different lateral driving amplitude 0 static case, dotted line, 0.25 full
line, 0.5 dashed line, and 0.75 dashed-dotted line.
046218-17
finement only in one spatial direction. Still, even for a perturbative time-periodic driving our knowledge of the role of
interactions for the conductance is rather incomplete. Moreover, interaction effects on transport in the regime of strong
driving remain an open field and their adequate treatment a
challenge. Again, the Floquet approach may provide a convenient framework to account for the time periodicity, and
interesting physics is expected from the interplay between
interactions and strong time-periodic driving.
F m x m ,t x m p g t
p g t mx g t
H l x l ,p l ,t
2m
V x l ,t x lg t ,
t0
dt g t ,
A2
A3
1
V x l ,t g t ,
m
t0
dt p g t .
A7
A8
1
p p g t 2 V x m ,t ,
2m m
A9
1
2m
t0
dt p g t 2 ,
A10
m
x x g t 2 V x,t .
2
A11
A12
A13
A4
A6
d
F x ,t
dt m m
p m mx m x g t ,
m 2
x mx m x g t V x m ,t .
2 m
L a x a ,x a ,t
m 2
x V x l ,t x lg t .
2 l
1
m
and
L l x l ,x l ,t
x g t
A1
L m x m ,x m ,t L l x m ,x m ,t
A5
introducing
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A14
1 2
p Vx a x g t ,t.
2m a
A15
046218-18
x a
1
V x a x g t ,t.
m
A16
2 2
l x,t
V x,t xg t l x,t .
t
2m x 2
A17
t closed P ,
x g t
i x
t0
V x,t m x,t ,
A19
dt p g t
a x,t
A20
comprises both a change in phase corresponding to the second term in the generating function A10, and a coordinate
shift, cf. Eq. A12. The transformed wave function a (x,t),
after replacing xx a x g (t), solves the Schrodinger equation
i
1
x ,t
p g t
t a a
2m i x a
t open 1 P ,
B2
Vx a x g t ,t a x a ,t , A21
in accordance with the classical Hamiltonian A15.
APPENDIX B: POWER-LAW DECAY OF THE
DWELL-TIME DISTRIBUTION FOR THE
VERTICALLY OSCILLATING SQUARE WELL
1
2 V 0 p 2
arccos
.
1
2V
B3
The condition that there exist both open and closed windows
implies a lower bound on the resonant momenta, p 2l /2
1 0. Since the resonant momenta decrease with
V 0 V
order l, this amounts to an upper bound on l,
B1
l1,2, . . . .
1
,
l
A18
1
p g t
x,t
t m
2m i x
p l
i
l x,t exp x p g t m x,t ,
ll maxint
1
2 V 0 V
B4
B5
046218-19
n l,
P n l,
n l,
l, P n l,
1
,
l
B10
t l, l,
P t ls
1
1
int
l
l
B12
B13
B8
B9
l
.
t 3
B14
1
mod 1
l
2
,
t
P l t P t ls P lst
2 t 2
B7
t l,
l
.
1
T
t closed
1
int
.
l
t l,
P lst l
1
P n l,
B6
dt
d
2L
2 l
2L
t l,
.
p l p l, 1
int
n l,
B11
P ls
2
2L
.
p l,
l P lt t 3 ,
t 1.
B15
The same reasoning, with only minor modifications, applies also to the distribution of dwell times in domino billiards, i.e., zigzag chains of rectangular billiards 33. A
more general derivation of the t 3 decay of the dwell-time
distribution is presented in Ref. 31.
046218-20
V 0 , the well depth or barrier height if V 0 0). In that reference frame, the momentum is p l n p n p g (t n1 ), denoting
p g (t )
sin t , the velocity of the well in the acceleration
gauge. By going into the length gauge and defining the auxiliary variable
C2
F x n , p n ,t n ;t n1
0,
C3
t n1 min t n1
,t n1
.
C4
x n1 x
t n1
if t n1 t n1
.
C6
i n1 i n ,
C7
p ln1 p
n .
C8
i n1 1i n ,
C9
C10
a 0 x
a j x cos t b j x sin t .
2
j1
D1
Due to time-reversal invariance, V(x,t)V(x,t), the sine
coefficients b j (x) vanish and
a j x
2
T
dt V x,t cos j t ,
D2
C5
Calculation of p n1 and i n1 . The fate of a trajectory encountering a moving potential step depends on whether it
comes from the low or the high side of the step, and on its
momentum relative to the step. The first condition is encoded
in i n . The second refers, specifically, to the kinetic energy
l)(p
l) 2 /2 in the reference frame moving with the well,
T l(p
i.e., in the length gauge defined in Appendix A, compared to
3
1
,
i n sgn V 0
2
2
l n )V
n : transmission
T l(p
so that
n1 t n
C1
where
x t 1
cos t
V n V 0
a 0 x 1
2
T
dt V x,t .
D3
046218-21
V
I I j ,
j
D4
I
j
d xL cos cos j I
j L . D5
I
j
0,
xL,
2
d cos j ,
xL,
d cos j 2 j ,
D6
xL
,
H m x,p
2 2 1 .
D7
I
0 2 arccos
xL
,
I
j
xL
2
sin j arccos
,
j
D8
I
0 2 xL 2 xL arccos
2
xL
I
j xL sin j arccos
j
xL
,
D9
arccos
Lx arccos
,
2V
j
d e ip / *
Lx
xL sin j arccos
,
W l
l
W l
xL
D13
l ,
2
E2
D12
,
2
2
E1
D11
1
2
W p,
W p,
V x V L x
1
The definition of quantum-mechanical phase-space representations depends on the topology of phase space. This is
obvious for the Husimi distribution, through the dependence
on phase-space topology of the coherent states on which it is
based, but it is also true for the Wigner function. Consider
first the case of action-angle variables p and , where is
cyclic so that the phase space assumes the topology of a
cylinder, implying discretization of p, p l l. A naive application of the definition of the Wigner function for a plane
phase space,
Finally, with the help of Eqs. D3 and D4, the timeaveraged potential is obtained as see Fig. 14
D15
m0.
Lx
Lx
.
1
,
m
. D10
I
0 I 0 2 L x 2
D14
xL.
1 arccos
1
a j x .
j
W l ,
W l ,
l even,
l odd,
E4
046218-22
d e
ip /
*
.
2
2
E5
R l,l
ll /2 ll /2 ,
W p,
W l
e il R l,l ,
E7
l even,
E9
lm
,
N
E10
E8
l odd.
l l (l l) mod N
m m (m m) mod N ,
E11
1
2
L/2
L/2
dx e 2 ilx * xx /2 mod L
xx /2 mod L .
E12
1
lm
exp 2 i
W l,m
2 m N/2
N
m
.
2
E13
E6
where
1
1 l
*
,
l l 1/2 ll /2(l 1/2) ll /2(l 1/2)
LM 2 N
W l p2 l ,
lm
N/21
W l,m
m
1
exp 2 i l l
2 N m ,l ,l N/2
N
exp 2 i
l l
m
l
l l ,
2
N
E14
046218-23
1
W l,m
2 N
N1
N/21
exp
kN k N/2
N/21
m N/2
exp 2 i
2i
k
m
l
2
N
k m
N
N/21
o
W l,m
kk
kk
.
2
N/21
lN/21
1
l m
exp 2 i
2 l N/2
N
odd
E15
1
l m
exp 2 i
2 l N/2
N
l lN/2
N1
1
l
N
2
1
1
sin
l
N
2
sin
l
1
l
2
2
l
1
l
2
2
E18
E17
This relation again shows a close similarity to the corresponding odd-l) result for a cylindrical phase space, cf. Eq.
E8, i.e., there appears an additional summation parallel to
the main diagonal of the momentum lattice, with an algebraically decaying kernel. In contrast to Eq. E8, however, here
the l summation need not be truncated in a practical evaluation since it runs only over a single period of the momentum lattice continued periodically, if required. In the limit
N, Eq. E8 is recovered.
By the symplectic symmetry of the construction, see Eq.
E11, it is clear that an analogous derivation will yield expressions for the Wigner function in terms of the positionrepresentation states m , essentially identical to Eqs.
E16 and E18. A generalization to nonpure states is
readily achieved by replacing with the density operator.
W l,m
even
E16
m N/2
N1
1
l j
N
2
1 m
exp 2 i l j
.
2 N
1
1
sin
l j
N
2
sin
046218-24
046218-25