Properties of the moving Holstein large polaron in one-dimensional molecular crystals

The features of the moving large polaron are investigated within Holstein's molecular crystal model. The necessity to account for the phonon dispersion is emphasized and its impact on polaron properties is examined in detail. It was found that the large polaron dynamics is described by the nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The character of its solutions is determined by the degree of nonlocality, which is specified by the polaron velocity and group velocity of the lattice modes. An analytic solution for the polaron wavefunction is obtained in the weakly nonlocal limit. It was found that the polaron velocity and phonon dispersion have a significant impact on the parameters and dynamics of large polarons. The polaron amplitude and effective mass increase while its spatial extent decreases with a rise in the degree of nonlocality. The criterion for the stability of large polaron is formulated in terms of the values of the degree of nonlocality, the magnitude of the basic energy parameters of the system and the polaron velocity. It turns out that the large polaron velocity cannot exceed a relatively small limiting value. A similar limitation on large polaron velocity has not been found in previous studies. The consequences of these results on polaron dynamics in realistic conditions are discussed.