Effect of electric field on one-dimensional insulators: a density matrix renormalization group study

Abstract

We perform density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations extensively on one-dimensional Mott and Peierls chains with explicit inclusion of the static bias to study the insulator-metal transition in those systems. We find that the electric field induces a number of insulator-metal transitions for finite-size systems and, at the thermodynamic limit, the insulating system breaks down into a completely conducting state at a critical value of bias that depends strongly on the insulating parameters. Our results indicate that the breakdown, in both the Peierls and Mott insulators, at the thermodynamic limit, does not follow the Landau-Zener mechanism. Calculations on various size systems indicate that an increase in the system size decreases the threshold bias as well as the charge gap at that bias, making the insulator-metal transition sharper in both cases.