Nonadiabatic particle transport in a one-dimensional electron system.

Abstract

Nonadiabatic effects on the particle transport (PT) induced by a sliding potential in a one-dimensional system are investigated. A formal treatment for calculating both average-energy and quasienergy (QE) subbands is given. A relation between the band structure and the transport property is established. By varying the speed of the sliding potential, the authors demonstrate how the quantization of PT breaks down due to the emergence of QE band gaps once beyond the adiabatic regime. In the nearly adiabatic limit, the nonadiabatic correction to the quantized PT is found to obey an exponential law. Farther from the adiabatic condition, another type of nonadiabatic breakdown, due purely to the onset of soft crossings in the average energy spectrum, is identified. It is also shown that the current subject is closely related to the Wannier-Stark ladder and the nonadiabatic quantum Hall effect.