Wannier-Stark states of graphene monolayer in strong electric field

TL;DR

This paper theoretically analyzes the energy spectrum of graphene monolayer in a strong electric field, revealing quantized levels, interband coupling effects, and unique tunneling behavior with implications for ultrafast optical responses.

Contribution

It provides an analytical description of Wannier-Stark states in graphene, highlighting the singular interband coupling and its impact on electron dynamics under strong fields.

Findings

Quantized Wannier-Stark ladder in graphene

Interband coupling causes level anticrossings near Dirac points

Interband tunneling rate inversely proportional to tunneling distance

Abstract

We find theoretically energy spectrum of a graphene monolayer in a strong constant electric field using a tight-binding model. Within a single band, we find quantized equidistant energy levels (Wannier-Stark ladder), separated by the Bloch frequency. Singular interband coupling results in mixing of the states of different bands and anticrossing of corresponding levels, which is described analytically near Dirac points and is related to the Pancharatnam-Berry phase. The rate of interband tunneling, which is proportional to the anticrossing gaps in the spectrum, is only inversely proportional to the tunneling distance, in a sharp contrast to conventional solids where this dependence is exponential. This singularity will have major consequences for graphene behavior in strong ultrafast optical fields, in particular, leading to non-adiabaticity of electron excitation dynamics.