We theoretically investigate nonlinear processes driven by a DC spin-electric field in the antiferromagnetic spin-1 Heisenberg model with the system initially in its ground state (the Haldane phase). The DC spin-electric field generates finite spin current and spin accumulation because the field destroys the symmetry-protected topological order. We identify two microscopic mechanisms responsible for the breakdown as well as the crossover between these mechanisms: In weak fields, tripron-antitripron pair creation occurs through the tunneling mechanism, and in strong fields, the system is described by an effective Hamiltonian in which the protecting symmetries are broken. We analyze the numerical results using the Dykhne-Davis-Pechukas theory and the Floquet theory, verifying the universal picture of the many-body Keldysh crossover in DC-driven quantum spin systems.

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• Landau-Zener effect
• Spintronics
• Topological materials
• 1-dimensional spin chains
• Bloch-Floquet theorem
• Spin lattice models