Revisiting the theory of large polarons

Abstract

We extend the theory of large polarons in the frame of a semi classical model. We analyse two physical effects in which the discreteness of the periodic lattice plays a major role: i) In addition to standard Holstein polarons, we show the existence of “braggons” which are polarons whose energy lies in a lattice gap. According to the type of gap considered, some of the them are ordinary solitons, some others are vector-solitons. ii) The pinning (or Peierls Nabarro) effect of the lattice on the polarons. We show that the coupling of the electrons with acoustic phonons is able to produce polarons or bipolarons in crystallographic situations where the coupling with optical phonons does'nt. The existence of multidimensional polarons and bipolarons is investigated, and we find interesting possibilities in dimension D=2. The binding energy and effective mass of the polarons are determined in the frame of the model, and their dynamical stability is analysed. We also show the existence, for D=1, of “tripolarons” in which two energy levels are occupied in the potential well created by the electron-lattice interaction. Finally the conditions of validity of the semi-classical approximation are given.