Nonlinear Transport Near a Quantum Phase Transition in Two Dimensions

Abstract

The problem of non-linear transport near a quantum phase transition is solved within the Landau theory for the dissipative insulator-superconductor phase transition in two dimensions. Using the non-equilibrium Schwinger round-trip Green function formalism, we obtain the scaling function for the non-linear conductivity in the quantum disordered regime. We find that the conductivity scales as $E^2$ at low field but crosses over at large fields to a universal constant on the order of $e^2/h$. The crossover between these two regimes obtains when the length scale for the quantum fluctuations becomes comparable to that of the electric field within logarithmic accuracy.