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Wannier-Stark states in double-periodic lattices II: two-dimensional lattices

We analyze the Wannier-Stark spectrum of a quantum particle in tilted two-dimensional lattices with the Bloch spectrum consisting of two subbands, which could be either separated by a finite gap or connected at the Dirac points. For rational orientations of the static field given by an arbitrary superposition of the translation vectors the spectrum is a ladder of energy bands. We obtain asymptotic expressions for the energy bands in the limit of large and weak static fields and study them numerically for intermediate field strength. We show that the structure of energy bands determines the rate of spreading of a localized wave packets which is the quantity measured in laboratory experiments. It is shown that wave-packet dispersion becomes a fractal function of the field orientation in the long-time regime of ballistic spreading.