Analysis of interface conversion processes of ballistic and diffusive motion in driven superlattices

TL;DR

This paper investigates how particles in a driven superlattice transition between diffusive and ballistic motion, revealing mechanisms to control particle velocity distributions and generate monoenergetic beams through local force variations.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed understanding of interface conversion processes in driven superlattices and demonstrates how to manipulate particle velocities for beam generation.

Findings

Strong correlations between velocity and phase in superlattices.

Control of velocity distributions via local force modifications.

Conversion of diffusive particles into monoenergetic beams.

Abstract

We explore the non-equilibrium dynamics of non-interacting classical particles in a one-dimensional driven superlattice which is composed of domains exposed to different time-dependent forces. It is shown how the combination of directed transport and conversion processes from diffusive to ballistic motion causes strong correlations between velocity and phase for particles passing through a superlattice. A detailed understanding of the underlying mechanism allows us to tune the resulting velocity distributions at distinguished points in the superlattice by means of local variations of the applied driving force. As an intriguing application we present a scheme how initially diffusive particles can be transformed into a monoenergetic pulsed particle beam whose parameters such as its energy can be varied.