Quantum ratchet transport with minimal dispersion rate

Abstract

We analyze the performance of quantum ratchets by considering the dynamics of an initially localized wave packet loaded into a flashing periodic potential. The directed center-of-mass motion can be initiated by the uniform modulation of the potential height, provided that the modulation protocol breaks all relevant time- and spatial reflection symmetries. A poor performance of quantum ratchet transport is characterized by a slow net motion and a fast diffusive spreading of the wave packet, while the desirable optimal performance is the contrary. By invoking a quantum analog of the classical Péclet number, namely the quotient of the group velocity and the dispersion of the propagating wave packet, we calibrate the transport properties of flashing quantum ratchets and discuss the mechanisms that yield low-dispersive directed transport.

6 pages; 3 figures; 1 table

References in corpus (13)

• Direct observation of Anderson localization of matter-waves in a controlled disorder
• Artificial Brownian motors: Controlling transport on the nanoscale
• Disordered quantum gases under control
• Directed Transport of Atoms in a Hamiltonian Quantum Ratchet
• Experimental Realization of Quantum-Resonance Ratchets
• Periodically driven Quantum Ratchets: Symmetries and Resonances
• Brownian motors: current fluctuations and rectification efficiency
• Directed Chaotic Transport in Hamiltonian Ratchets
• Generic Quantum Ratchet Accelerator with Full Classical Chaos
• ac-driven atomic quantum motor
• Quantum Ratchet Accelerator without a Bichromatic Lattice Potential
• Dissipationless Directed Transport in Rocked Single-Band Quantum Dynamics
• Steering Bose-Einstein condensates despite time symmetry

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Tunable transport with broken space-time symmetries
• Experimental control of transport resonances in a coherent quantum rocking ratchet
• Quantum Suppression of Ratchet Rectification in a Brownian System Driven by a Biharmonic Force
• Swallowtail Band Structure of the Superfluid Fermi Gas in an Optical Lattice
• Delicate and robust dynamical recurrences of matter waves in driven optical crystals
• A regular Hamiltonian halting ratchet for matter wave transport
• Quantum transport in a driven disordered potential: onset of directed current and noise-induced current reversal
• Symmetries and transport in site-dependently driven quantum lattices
• Layered Chaos in Mean-field and Quantum Many-body Dynamics
• Quantum ratchet with Lindblad rate equations
• Experimental demonstration of photonic quantum ratchet