2015/03/31 by Malte F. Linder, Axel Lorke, A. Lorke +1 · 2 citations
Computer Science · Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Electric field #Field (mathematics) #Graphene research and applications #Hamiltonian (control theory) #Mathematics #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Quantum tunnelling #Semiconductor #cond-mat.mes-hall #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.97.035203
published as Phys. Rev. B 97, 035203 (2018) · 19 pages REVTeX, 6 (sub)figures, v3: completely rewritten, now intended for publication, v4: final version
arxiv created 2018/01/16 · openalex publication_date 2018/01/16 · arxiv updated 2018/01/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The Sauter-Schwinger effect predicts the creation of electron-positron pairs out of the quantum vacuum via tunneling induced by a strong electric field. Unfortunately, as the required field strength is extremely large, this fundamental prediction of quantum field theory has not been verified experimentally yet. Here, we study under which conditions and approximations the interband tunneling in suitable semiconductors could be effectively governed by the same (Dirac) Hamiltonian, especially for electric fields which depend on space and time. This quantitative analogy would allow us to test some of the predictions (such as the dynamically assisted Sauter-Schwinger effect) in this area by means of these laboratory analogs.