Current rectification in a correlated disordered 1D chain in presence of periodically driven electric field

Abstract

The current rectification phenomenon is investigated at nanoscale level considering a one-dimensional tight-binding chain whose site energies are modulated in a cosine form following the well established Aubry-Andre-Harper (AAH) form in presence of a periodically driving field. The appearance of an electric field along the chain due to voltage bias leads to an asymmetry in the system, resulting in different currents in two bias polarities. The degree of current rectification can be monitored selectively by means of external light irradiation, which is included into the system by means of a minimal coupling scheme. Our analysis may provide a new direction of designing tunable currents rectifiers using AAH systems and other similar kinds of fascinating correlated disordered ones.