Non Linear Current Response of a Many-Level Tunneling System: Higher Harmonics Generation

Abstract

The fully nonlinear response of a many-level tunneling system to a strong alternating field of high frequency $\omega$ is studied in terms of the Schwinger-Keldysh nonequilibrium Green functions. The nonlinear time dependent tunneling current $I(t)$ is calculated exactly and its resonance structure is elucidated. In particular, it is shown that under certain reasonable conditions on the physical parameters, the Fourier component $I_n$ is sharply peaked at $n=\frac{\Delta E}{\hslash \omega }$, where $\Delta E$ is the spacing between two levels. This frequency multiplication results from the highly nonlinear process of $n$ photon absorption (or emission) by the tunneling system. It is also conjectured that this effect (which so far is studied mainly in the context of nonlinear optics) might be experimentally feasible.

28 pages, LaTex, 7 figures are available upon request from [email protected], submitted to Phys.Rev.B

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Scattering Theory of Photon-Assisted Electron Transport
• Nonlinear Response of a Kondo system: Direct and Alternating Tunneling Currents
• Non-linear response of a Kondo system: Perturbation approach to the time dependent Anderson impurity model
• Interaction-induced harmonic frequency mixing in quantum dots