Dynamic localization of a charged particle moving under the influence of an electric field

The motion of a charged particle on a discrete lattice under the action of an electric field is studied with the help of explicit calculations of probability propagators and mean-square displacements. Exact results are presented for arbitrary time dependence of the electric field on a one-dimensional lattice. Existing results for the limiting cases of zero frequency and zero field are recovered. A new phenomenon involving the dynamic localization of the moving particle is shown to result in the case of a sinusoidally varying field: The particle is generally delocalized except for the cases when the ratio of the field magnitude and the field frequency is a root of the ordinary Bessel function of order 0. For these special cases it is found to be localized. This localization could be used, in principle, for inducing anisotropy in the transport properties of an ordinarily isotropic material.