Stability of uniform electronic wavepackets in chains and fullerenes

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the influence of electron-lattice interaction on the stability of uniform electronic wavepackets on chains as well as on several types of fullerenes. We will use an effective nonlinear Schrödinger equation to mimic the electron–phonon coupling in these topologies. By numerically solving the nonlinear dynamic equation for an initially uniform electronic wavepacket, we show that the critical nonlinear coupling above which it becomes unstable continuously decreases with the chain size. On the other hand, the critical nonlinear strength saturates on a finite value in large fullerene buckyballs. We also provide analytical arguments to support these findings based on a modulational instability analysis.