Propagation of waves in high Brillouin zones: Chaotic branched flow and stable superwires

Alvar Daza; Eric J Heller; Anton M Graf; Esa Räsänen

doi:10.1073/pnas.2110285118

Propagation of waves in high Brillouin zones: Chaotic branched flow and stable superwires

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Oct 5;118(40):e2110285118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2110285118.

Authors

Alvar Daza^{1

2}, Eric J Heller^{3

4}, Anton M Graf⁵, Esa Räsänen^{3

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138; alvar.daza@urjc.es.
² Nonlinear Dynamics, Chaos and Complex Systems Group, Departamento de Física, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid 28 933, Spain.
³ Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.
⁴ Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.
⁵ Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.
⁶ Computational Physics Laboratory, Tampere University, Tampere 33720, Finland.

Abstract

We report unexpected classical and quantum dynamics of a wave propagating in a periodic potential in high Brillouin zones. Branched flow appears at wavelengths shorter than the typical length scale of the ordered periodic structure and for energies above the potential barrier. The strongest branches remain stable indefinitely and may create linear dynamical channels, wherein waves are not confined directly by potential walls as electrons in ordinary wires but rather, indirectly and more subtly by dynamical stability. We term these superwires since they are associated with a superlattice.

Keywords: branched flow; chaos; superlattices; wave dynamics.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't