Manipulating non-Hermitian skin effect via electric fields

In non-Hermitian systems, the phenomenon that the bulk-band eigenstates are accumulated at the boundaries of the systems under open boundary conditions is called non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE), which is one of the most iconic and important features of a non-Hermitian system. In this work, we investigate the fate of NHSE in the presence of electric fields by analytically calculating the dynamical evolution of an initial bulk state and numerically computing the spectral winding number, the distributions of eigenstates, as well as the dynamical evolutions. We show the abundant manipulation effects of dc and ac fields on the NHSE, and the physical mechanism behind is the interplay between the Stark localization, dynamic localization and the NHSE. In addition, the finite size analysis of the non-Hermitian system with a pure dc field shows the phenomenon of size-dependent NHSE. The results will help to deepen the understanding of NHSE and its manipulation.