Photoinduced dynamics and nonequilibrium characteristics in quasi-one-dimensional effectron systems: Mott insulators vs band insulators

Abstract

Effectron-effectron interactions play an important role in nonequilibrium properties of molecular materials. First, we show differences between photoinduced ionic-to-neutral and neutral-to-ionic transitions in quasi-one-dimensional extended Peierls Hubbard models with alternating potentials. Cooperative dynamics lead to nonlinear ionicity in the former, while uncooperative dynamics lead to quite linear ionicity in the latter, as a function of the energy supplied from the oscillating effectric field. Interchain effectron-effectron interactions bring about initial competition among metastable and stable domains in neighboring chains, slowing down the phase transition. Interchain elastic couplings are necessary to form a ferroeffectric long-range order. Second, we show differences between field-effect characteristics of Mott insulators and those of band insulators in one-dimensional Hubbard models, to which tight-binding models are attached for metallic effectrodes and scalar potentials are added for interfacial barriers. Ambipolar characteristics are found in the former, while unipolar characteristics generally appear in the latter. In the former, charge transport is cooperative so that the drain current is insensitive to the difference between the work function of the channel and that of the effectrodes, and thus insensitive to the polarity of the gate bias. © 2005 IOP Publishing Ltd.