Calculating electron transport in a tight binding model of a field-driven molecular wire: Floquet theory approach

Abstract

This paper considers electron transport through a molecular bridge coupled to two metal electrodes in the presence of a monochromatic radiation field. Current flow through the wire is calculated within a nondissipative one-electron tight binding model of the quantum dynamics. Using Floquet theory, the field-driven molecular wire is mapped to an effective time-independent quantum system characterized by a tight-binding Hamiltonian with the same essential structure as the nondriven analog. Thus, Green’s Function methods for computing current flow through the wire, which have been profitably applied to the molecular wire problem in the absence of driving, can also be used to analyze the corresponding field-driven system. Illustrative numerical calculations on a simple model system are presented.