Dynamically confined superwires as stable electron guides in the presence of lattice defects

Publication information:

Kim, M., Graf, A., Lin, K., Keski-Rahkonen, J. & Heller, E. Dynamically confined superwires as stable electron guides in the presence of lattice defects. in APS March Meeting Abstracts (2024).

Abstract

Guiding electrons along a 2D material, in a similar fashion to optical waveguides, can be one way to control electron transmission and improve electronic and even quantum communication. It was recently found that electrons propagated in a 2D periodic superlattice potential, more specifically in a linear channel, stay in the channel for a long time. In these channels, namely ``superwires'', electrons are not mechanically confined with a high barrier of potential, and this 1D localization occurs dynamically. We demonstrate that by altering parameters such as lattice constant and shapes and heights of the potential, we can modulate allowed electron wavelengths in superwires. Furthermore, dynamic superwires can remain robust against vacancies, impurities, and disorder emerging from finite-temperature lattice vibrations. The stability analysis of dynamical channels in a realizable parameter regime is discussed. The suppressed electron-phonon interactions in the flat bands of high Brillouin zones imply reduced backscattering and may give rise to zero-resistivity transport. This stability of the dynamical localization of electrons against perturbations in a non-integrable system promises a novel way to control electron transport in nanoscale devices.