Localization and mobility edges in non-Hermitian disorder-free lattices

Abstract: The non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) is a significant phenomenon observed in non-Hermitian systems under open boundary conditions, where the extensive bulk eigenstates tend to accumulate at the lattice edges. In this article, we investigate how an electric field affects the localization properties in a non-Hermitian mosaic Stark lattice, exploring the interplay between the Stark localization, mobility edge (ME), and the NHSE induced by nonreciprocity. We analytically obtain the Lyapunov exponent and the phase transition points as well as numerically calculate the density distributions and the spectral winding number. We reveal that in the nonreciprocal Stark lattice with the mosaic periodic parameter $\kappa=1$, there exists a critical electric field strength that describes the transition of the existence-nonexistence of NHSE and is inversely proportional to the lattice size. This transition is consistent with the real-complex transition and topological transition characterized by spectral winding number under periodic boundary conditions. In the strong fields, the Wannier-Stark ladder is recovered, and the Stark localization is sufficient to suppress the NHSE. When the mosaic period $\kappa=2$, we show that the system manifests an exact non-Hermitian ME and the skin states are still existing in the strong fields, in contrast to the gigantic field can restrain the NHSE in the $\kappa=1$ case. Moreover, we further study the expansion dynamics of an initially localized state and dynamically probe the existence of the NHSE and the non-Hermitian ME. These results could help us to control the NHSE and the non-Hermitian ME by using electric fields in the disorder-free systems.