Münster 2017 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 38: Quantenfeldtheorie (nicht-perturbativ)

T 38.3: Talk

Tuesday, March 28, 2017, 11:30–11:45, VSH 11

Semiconductor analog of the Dirac equation and Sauter–Schwinger pair creation — •Malte F. Linder and Ralf Schützhold — Fakultät für Physik, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Lotharstr. 1, 47057 Duisburg, Germany

There is an analogy between E-field-induced tunneling of Dirac-sea electrons to the upper energy continuum in Dirac theory (Sauter–Schwinger effect) and electron–hole pair creation in direct-gap semiconductors via interband (Landau–Zener) tunneling due to external E fields. In this talk, we show that in 1+1 spacetime dimensions, the Bloch electrons in the vicinity of the band gap obey a Dirac equation with effective physical constants in arbitrary external fields E(t,x), provided the fields predominantly stimulate tunneling-type excitations (low photon energies, large wavelengths). Condensed-matter analogs of relativistic quantum physics could be useful to study high-energy effects in the laboratory.