Current characteristics of a one-dimensional Hubbard chain: Role of correlation and dissipation

We study the electronic transport in an infinite one-dimensional Hubbard chain, driven by a homogeneous electric field. The physical chain is coupled to fermionic bath chains in order to account for dissipation and to prevent the occurrence of Bloch oscillations. The steady-state current is computed in the frame of Keldysh Green's functions in cluster perturbation theory. The current characteristics are dominated by resonant-tunneling-like structures, which can be traced back to Wannier-Stark resonances due to antiferromagnetic correlations. The same current characteristic occurs in a noninteracting Wannier-Stark model with alternating on-site energies. Nonlocal effects of the self-energy can be accounted for the observed physical behavior.