ELECTRONS OF A SOLID IN AN EXTERNAL ELECTRIC FIELD

F. BENTOSELA

Universite d'Aix-Marseille II
and
Centre de Physique Theorique
C.N.R.S. Luminy Case 907
F. 13288 MARSEILLE CEDEX 9

INTRODUCTION
I will present some studies on the Schrodinger equation corresponding to an electron
in a solid submitted to an external electric field and restrict myself to the )-
dimension case
2
d
H= - + Vex) + Fx
2
dx
1) General theorems in the case V is a bounded function having some regularity pro-
perties.
2) Resonances for a semi-infinite crystal model
00
[b(x - na) + Fx
ns'
(numerical results).
3) Resonances for a semi-infinite random model
00

L. V (w)
rhl n
(x - n a ) + Fx

I - GENERAL RESULl
The motivations to get a general result on the nature of the spectrum of H were to
see what happens when starting from a potential which gives rise to a pure point
spectrum you add an electric field. Are there ,again localized states? Some theore-
tical studies predicted that there should be a transition i.e. for small fields the
states remain localized, for high field they become extended. The result we get
doesn't confirm this view.

Theorem
Let V be a bounded real-valued function, whose first derivative is bounded and ab-
solutely continuous and such V" is essentially bounded, then for each F '" 0 the
spectrum of the s.a.o.
2
d
H -
2 + Fx + Vex)
dx

is R and it is purely absolutely continuous.

 33

Sketch of the proof :

The proof is based on Mourre's theorem.

Mourre's theorem tells uS :
H a s.a.op., A its conjugate op. i.e. a s.a.op. satisfying the conditions
(a) D(A) () D(H) is a core for H
(b) (other conditions needed
to justify the algebraic
manipulations)
(e) There exists strictly positive numbers and 8" and a compact op. K
such that if E (A) denote the spectral projection for H onto the
H
interval D.
i [H,A] l\r(D) 0( ) + Fll(A)K )

Then In the point spectrum of H is finite

2 There is no continuous singulat part of the spectrum in A
d
If we choose A p;: i dx we get

E ( 6) i
H
[H, P J E (A ) =
H
F E ( D) + E ( A) V I
H H
E (D )
H

Then it is sufficient to prove E (A) V' E ( A) is compact.

H H
As V is bounded it is in fact equivalent to the compactness of
d2
if HF denotes - ---2 + Fx
Now we use the factdxthat E (A) is exp lici tly known.
-I H
p3/3F
As UF HFU F Fx with UFF= e i we get :

-]
As K U V' U can be written at least formally
F F

J V'
..00
i p 3/3F
K dt (t)e-

V' (t)eit3/3F
-00

its kernel is
2
it 3/3F I/ 2 .( t) 2
K(x,y) e t- V' (t)e x-Y-+p--' /4t (I)

To get uniform bound on K(x,y) it will be necessary to control the decrease of V'(t)
at infinity (which means V has to be sufficiently regular). We are also in trouble