Coherent destruction of tunneling in a lattice array with controllable boundary

TL;DR

This paper explores how boundary control in a driven lattice array can induce transitions between tunneling states, revealing odd-even effects and robustness against second-order couplings, with observable destruction and revival phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a method to manipulate tunneling dynamics via boundary control, demonstrating transitions and robustness in a driven lattice with potential experimental verification.

Findings

Transition direction shows odd-even sensitivity to the number of sites.

CDT-CT transition is robust against second-order coupling in odd-site systems.

Destruction and revival of CDT occur in non-high-frequency regimes.

Abstract

We have investigated how the dynamics of a quantum particle initially localized in the left boundary site under periodic driving can be manipulated via control of the right boundary site of a lattice array. Because of the adjustable coupling between the right boundary site and its nearest-neighbor, we can realize either coherent destruction of tunneling to coherent tunneling (CDT-CT) transition or coherent tunneling to coherent destruction of tunneling (CT-CDT) transition, by driving or moving the right boundary site while keeping the left boundary site driven by a periodically oscillating field with a fixed driving parameter. In particular, the transition direction shows odd-even sensitivity to the number of lattice sites. We have also revealed that our proposed CDT-CT transition is robust against the second order coupling (SOC) between next-nearest-neighbor sites in odd-$N$-site systems, whereas localization can be significantly enhanced by SOC in even-$N$-site systems. More interestingly, it is found destruction and revival of CDT observable in non-high-frequency regimes. Our results can be readily verified within the capacity of current experiments.