Bloch-Landau-Zener Oscillations in Moiré Lattices

Abstract

We develop a theory of two-dimensional Bloch-Landau-Zener (BLZ) oscillations of wavepackets in incommensurate moiré lattices under the influence of a weak linear gradient. Unlike periodic systems, aperiodic lattices lack translational symmetry and therefore do not exhibit a conventional band-gap structure. Instead, they feature a mobility edge, above which (in the optical context) all modes become localized. When a linear gradient is applied to a moiré lattice, it enables energy transfer between two or several localized modes, leading to the oscillatory behavior referred to as BLZ oscillations. This phenomenon represents simultaneous tunneling in real space and propagation constant (energy) space, and it arises when quasi-resonance condition for propagation constants and spatial proximity of interacting modes (together constituting a selection rule) are met. The selection rule is controlled by the linear gradient, whose amplitude and direction play a crucial role in determining the coupling pathways and the resulting dynamics. We derive a multimode model describing BLZ oscillations in the linear regime and analyze how both attractive and repulsive nonlinearities affect their dynamics. The proposed framework can be readily extended to other physical systems, including cold atoms and Bose-Einstein condensates in aperiodic potentials.