Wannier-Stark ladder in the linear absorption of a random system with scale-free disorder

TL;DR

This paper investigates how long-range correlated disorder in a one-dimensional lattice affects the optical response, revealing the emergence of Wannier-Stark ladders as a signature of extended states and delocalization.

Contribution

It demonstrates the appearance of Wannier-Stark ladders in a disordered system with scale-free correlations, linking optical spectra to localization properties.

Findings

Wannier-Stark ladders appear in the optical response of the system.

The ladders form a comb of doublets when extended states emerge.

Optical absorption can detect the level structure associated with delocalization.

Abstract

We study numerically the linear optical response of a quasiparticle moving on a one-dimensional disordered lattice in the presence of a linear bias. The random site potential is assumed to be long-range-correlated with a power-law spectral density $S(k) \sim 1/k^{\alpha}$, $\alpha > 0$. This type of correlations results in a phase of extended states at the band center, provided $\alpha$ is larger than a critical value $\alpha_c$ [F. A. B. F. de Moura and M. L. Lyra, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{81}, 3735 (1998)]. The width of the delocalized phase can be tested by applying an external electric field: Bloch-like oscillations of a quasiparticle wave packet are governed by the two mobility edges, playing now the role of band edges [F. Dom\'{\i}nguez-Adame \emph{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{91}, 197402 (2003)]. We demonstrate that the frequency-domain counterpart of these oscillations, the so-called Wannier-Stark ladder, also arises in this system. When the phase of extended states emerges in the system, this ladder turns out to be a comb of doublets, for some range of disorder strength and bias. Linear optical absorption provides a tool to detect this level structure.