Bound states in the continuum (BIC) protected by self-sustained potential barriers in a flat band system

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the bound states in the continuum (BIC) of a one-dimensional spin-1 flat band system. It is found that, when the potential is sufficiently strong, there exists an effective attractive potential well surrounded by infinitely high self-sustained barriers. Consequently, there exist some BIC in the effective potential well. These bound states are protected by the infinitely high potential barriers, which could not decay into the continuum.} Taking a long-ranged Coulomb potential and a short-ranged exponential potential as two examples, the bound state energies are obtained. For a Coulomb potential, there exists a series of critical potential strengths, near which the bound state energy can go to infinity. For a sufficiently strong exponential potential, there exists two different bound states with a same number of wave function nodes. The existence of BIC protected by the self-sustained potential barriers is quite a universal phenomenon in the flat band system under a strong potential. A necessary condition for the existence of BIC is that the maximum value of potential is larger than two times band gap.