Rectification in an idealized model junction of strongly correlated electrons

Junctions of oppositely doped Mott insulators offer the possibility of rectification at extremely high frequencies. To simulate an idealized junction we use a model of spinless electrons moving in one dimension, the t-V chain, and control the chemical potential on the two halves of the chain to create a p-n junction. For short chains the many-body Schrodinger equation can be integrated forward in time numerically exactly, and we find that when subjected to an oscillating electric field the system rectifies by transferring charge in a preferred direction. Dissipation can be included in a phenomenological way by rotating time slightly off the real axis. The time dependent density-matrix renormalization-group may be used to extend the simulation to longer chains with spinning electrons.