Vibron-polaron critical localization in a finite size molecular nanowire

Abstract

The small polaron theory is applied to describe the vibron dynamics in an adsorbed nanowire with a special emphasis onto finite size effects. It is shown that the finite size of the nanowire discriminates between side molecules and core molecules which experience a different dressing mechanism. Moreover, the inhomogeneous behavior of the polaron hopping constant is established and it is shown that the core hopping constant depends on the lattice size. However, the property of a lattice with translational invariance is recovered when the size of the nanowire is greater than a critical value. Finally, it is pointed out that these features yield the occurrence of high energy localized states in which both the nature and the number are summarized in a phase diagram in terms of the relevant parameters of the problem (small polaron binding energy, temperature, lattice size).