Wave packet dynamics in hole Luttinger systems

TL;DR

This paper investigates the wave packet dynamics in hole systems with spin 3/2 using analytical and numerical methods, revealing two distinct evolution scenarios based on initial conditions and analyzing angular momentum behaviors.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analytical and numerical analysis of wave packet evolution in 2D hole Luttinger systems with arbitrary initial polarizations.

Findings

Wave packet splits into two parts for large initial momentum parameter.

Zitterbewegung occurs in the large parameter regime, absent in the small parameter case.

Angular momentum densities exhibit multipole structures and precession effects.

Abstract

For hole systems with an effective spin 3/2 we analyzed analytically and numerically the evolution of wave packets with the different initial polarizations. The dynamics of such systems is determined by the $4\times 4$ Luttinger Hamiltonian. We work in the space of arbitrary superposition of light- and heavy-hole states of the "one-particle system". For 2D packets we obtained the analytical solution for the components of wave function and analyzed the space-time dependence of probability densities as well as angular momentum densities. Depending on the value of the parameter $a=k_0d$ ($k_0$ is the average momentum vector and $d$ is the packet width) two scenarios of evolution are realized. For $a>>1$ the initial wave packet splits into two parts and the coordinates of packet center experience the transient oscillations or {\it Zitterbewegung} (ZB) as for other two-band systems. In the case when $a<<1$ the distribution of probability density at $t>0$ remains almost cylindrically symmetric and the ripples arise at the circumference of wave packet. The ZB in this case is absent. We evaluated and visualized for different values of parameter $a$ the space-time dependence of angular momentum densities, which have the multipole structure. It was shown that the average momentum components can precess in the absence of external or effective magnetic fields due to the interference of the light- and heavy hole states. For localized initial states this precession has a transient character.