Activation-Tunneling Dynamics of Extended Systems in a Periodic Potential Relief

Abstract

The dynamics of objects of various physical origins in barrier structures of superconductors, magnetic materials, quantum crystals and other solids is determined by the rate of fluctuation decay of metastable states in intermediate minima of a potential barrier. In a low-temperature region important for many nanotechnological applications, thermal fluctuations are frozen and are replaced by quantum fluctuations, which lead to a specific phase transition in the dynamics. The character of this transition in various systems is an analog of second-order or first-order transitions. The transition temperature is dependent on the degree of metastability and can be controlled by external load. This dependence is calculated for an extended nanosystem in an oblique periodic relief like a “washboard” in a wide range of varying the load, and the results generalize the results known before.