Quantum diffusion of Dirac fermions in a tight-binding model

In this work, we develop a time-dependent mathematical model to investigate the wave packet evolution of both massive and massless Dirac fermions in a tight-binding lattice. Our study focuses on the quantum diffusion of carriers in a one-dimensional crystal, where the system Hamiltonian is represent...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAPL quantum Vol. 2; no. 2; pp. 026136 - 026136-11
Main Authors Cruz-Méndez, M., Cruz, H.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published AIP Publishing LLC 01.06.2025
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Summary:In this work, we develop a time-dependent mathematical model to investigate the wave packet evolution of both massive and massless Dirac fermions in a tight-binding lattice. Our study focuses on the quantum diffusion of carriers in a one-dimensional crystal, where the system Hamiltonian is represented by both the Dirac and Schrödinger equations. Interestingly, during the quantum diffusion process, we observe oscillations of the wave packet between the spinor-up and spinor-down bands in the Dirac case. In the massive fermion scenario, these oscillations between the sublattices are influenced by inertial mass effects, resulting in longer oscillation periods as the mass increases. In addition, we find a strong dependence of Dirac fermion dynamics on the Fermi velocity in the tight-binding chain.
ISSN:2835-0103
2835-0103
DOI:10.1063/5.0246968