Bloch Electrons in a Magnetic Field - Why Does Chaos Send Electrons the Hard Way?

Abstract

We find that a 2D periodic potential with different modulation amplitudes in x- and y-direction and a perpendicular magnetic field may lead to a transition to electron transport along the direction of stronger modulation and to localization in the direction of weaker modulation. In the experimentally accessible regime we relate this new quantum transport phenomenon to avoided band crossing due to classical chaos.

4 pages, 3 figures, minor modifications, PRL to appear

References in corpus (3)

• Hall conductance of Bloch electrons in a magnetic field
• Avoided Band Crossings: Tuning Metal-Insulator Transitions in Chaotic Systems
• Magnetic field induced directional localization in a 2D rectangular lattice

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Cyclotron-Bloch dynamics of a quantum particle in a 2D lattice
• Cyclotron-Bloch dynamics of a quantum particle in a two-dimensional lattice II
• Dynamics of wave packets in two-dimensional crystals under external magnetic and electric fields: Vortices formation
• Quantum states and optics in a {\it p}-type heterojunction with lateral surface quantum dot or antidot superlattice subjected to perpendicular magnetic field
• Fractional Floquet theory
• Quantum chaos in the mesoscopic device for the Josephson flux qubit
• Metal-insulator transitions in cyclotron resonance of periodic nanostructures due to avoided band crossings
• Avoided Band Crossing in Locally Periodic Elastic Rods