Rectification in one--dimensional electronic systems

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that electron interactions in one-dimensional conductors significantly enhance diode-like rectification effects caused by a single impurity, resulting in a power-law dependence of rectification current on voltage.

Contribution

It reveals how electron interactions amplify rectification in one-dimensional systems with a single impurity, using the Tomonaga-Luttinger model.

Findings

Electron interactions strongly enhance rectification.

Rectification current follows a power-law with negative exponent.

Pronounced rectification even with weak impurity potential.

Abstract

Asymmetric current--voltage ($I(V)$) curves, known as the diode or rectification effect, in one--dimensional electronic conductors can have their origin from scattering off a single asymmetric impurity in the system. We investigate this effect in the framework of the Tomonaga--Luttinger model for electrons with spin. We show that electron interactions strongly enhance the diode effect and lead to a pronounced current rectification even if the impurity potential is weak. For strongly interacting electrons and not too small voltages, the rectification current, $I_r = [I(V)+I(-V)]/2$, measuring the asymmetry in the current--voltage curve, has a power--law dependence on the voltage with a negative exponent, $I_r \sim V^{-|z|}$, leading to a bump in the current--voltage curve.