Quantum breathers in lithium tantalate ferroelectrics

Abstract

Lithium tantalate is technologically one of the most important ferroelectric materials with a low poling field that has several applications in the field of photonics and memory switching devices. In a Hamiltonian system, such as dipolar system, the polarization behavior of such ferroelectrics can be well-modeled by Klein-Gordon (K-G) equation. Due to strong localization coupled with discreteness in a nonlinear K-G lattice, there is a formation of breathers and multi-breathers that manifest in the localization peaks across the domains in polarization-spacetime plot. Due to the presence of nonlinearity and also impurities (as antisite tantalum defects) in the structure, dissipative effects are observed and hence dissipative breathers are studied here. To probe the quantum states related to discrete breathers, the same K-G lattice is quantized to give rise to quantum breathers (QBs) that are explained by a periodic boundary condition. The gap between the localized and delocalized phonon-band is a function of impurity content that is again related to the effect of pinning of domains due to antisite tantalum defects in the system, i.e., a point of easier switching within the limited amount of data on poling field, which is related to Landau coefficient (read, nonlinearity). Secondly, in a non-periodic boundary condition, the temporal evolution of quanta shows interesting behavior in terms of 'critical' time of redistribution of quanta that is proportional to QB's lifetime in femtosecond having a possibility for THz applications. Hence, the importance of both the methods for characterizing quantum breathers is shown in these perspectives.