Paper detail

Floquet theory for the electronic stopping of projectiles in solids

A general theoretical framework for the study of electronic stopping of particle projectiles in crystalline solids is proposed. It neither relies on perturbative or linear response approximations, nor on an ideal metal host. Instead, it exploits the discrete translational symmetries in a space-time diagonal determined by a projectile with constant velocity moving along a trajectory with crystalline periodicity. This allows for the characterisation of (stroboscopically) stationary solutions, by means of Floquet theory for time-periodic systems. Previous perturbative and non-linear jellium models are recovered from this general theory. An analysis of the threshold velocity effect in insulators is presented based on Floquet quasi-energy conservation.