Ground-State Decay Rate for the Zener Breakdown in Band and Mott Insulators

TL;DR

This paper investigates the ground-state decay rate during dielectric breakdown in band and Mott insulators, using non-linear quantum electrodynamics concepts and advanced numerical methods to understand electron interactions and tunneling phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a reformulation of dielectric breakdown in terms of ground-state decay rates and compares electron interactions in band and Mott insulators using DMRG.

Findings

Electron interaction affects Zener tunneling rates.

Comparison between band and Mott insulators reveals different breakdown mechanisms.

Establishment of a relation with Berry's phase theory of polarization.

Abstract

Non-linear transport of electrons in strong electric fields, as typified by dielectric breakdown, is re-formulated in terms of the ground-state decay rate originally studied by Schwinger in non-linear QED. We discuss the effect of electron interaction on Zener tunneling by comparing the dielectric breakdown of the band insulator and the Mott insulator, where the latter is studied by the time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG). The relation with the Berry's phase theory of polarization is also established.