Two-terminal transport in biased lattices

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/6grr-dkry

We analyze the quantum transport of charged fermionic particles in the tight-binding lattice connecting two particle reservoirs (leads). If the lead chemical potentials are different they create an electric field which tilts the lattice. We study the effect of this tilt on quantum transport in the presence of weak decoherence processes in the lattice. It is shown that a Landauer ballistic transport regime for a small tilt changes to a diffusive Esaki-Tsu transport regime for a larger tilt. The critical tilt for this crossover is determined by the condition that the Wannier-Stark localization length coincides with the length of the lattice.