Effective quantum dynamics in curved thin-layer system with inhomogeneous confinement

Abstract: The motion of quantum particles homogeneously constrained to a curved surface is affected by a curvature induced geometric potential. Here, we consider the case of inhomogeneous confinement and derive the effective Hamiltonian by extending thin-layer procedure, where an extra effective potential appears. This effective potential is relevant to the ground state energy perpendicular to the surface and the morphology of the confining potential. Tiny changes in the thickness are envisioned to induce considerable magnitude of the effective potential. To demonstrate the impact of the inhomogeneity, we apply our method to investigate the coherent transport on a cylindrical surface where a confining potential with two helical ditches is imposed. Numerical analysis reveals that the inhomogeneity of the confinement significantly changes the transport properties. This study develops the method for low-dimensional constrained systems and exhibits the possibility of new degree of control for waveguiding in nanostructures.