We consider the dynamics of an electron in an infinite disordered metallic wire. We derive exact expressions for the probability of diffusive return to the starting point in a given time. The result is valid for wires with or without time-reversal symmetry and allows for the possibility of topologically protected conducting channels. In the absence of protected channels, Anderson localization leads to a nonzero limiting value of the return probability at long times, which is approached as a negative power of time with an exponent depending on the symmetry class. When topologically protected channels are present (in a wire of either unitary or symplectic symmetry), the probability of return decays to zero at long time as a power law whose exponent depends on the number of protected channels. Technically, we describe the electron dynamics by the one-dimensional supersymmetric non-linear sigma model. We derive an exact identity that relates any local dynamical correlation function in a disordered wire of unitary, orthogonal, or symplectic symmetry to a certain expectation value in the random matrix ensemble of class AIII, CI, or DIII, respectively. The established exact mapping from one- to zero-dimensional sigma model is very general and can be used to compute any local observable in a disordered wire.
The entanglement entropy distribution of strongly disordered one dimensional spin chains, which are equivalent to spinless fermions at half-filling on a bond (hopping) disordered one-dimensional Anderson model, has been shown to exhibit very distinct features such as peaks at integer multiplications of $\ln(2)$, essentially counting the number of singlets traversing the boundary. Here we show that for a canonical Anderson model with box distribution on-site disorder and repulsive nearest-neighbor interactions the entanglement entropy distribution also exhibits interesting features, albeit diff…
We investigate the possibility of an Anderson transition below two dimensions in disordered systems of non-interacting electrons with symplectic symmetry. Numerical analysis of energy level statistics and conductance statistics on Sierpinski carpets with spin-orbit coupling indicates the occurrence of an Anderson transition below two dimensions.
We present a fully three-dimensional Bloch mode expansion technique and photon Green function formalism to compute the quality factor, mode volume, and Purcell enhancement distributions of a disordered W1 photonic crystal slab waveguide in the slow-light Anderson localization regime. By considering fabrication (intrinsic) and intentional (extrinsic) disorder we find that the quality factor and Purcell enhancement statistics are well described by log-normal distributions without any fitting parameters. We also compare directly the effects of hole size fluctuations as well as fluctuations in the…
We study the properties of the normal modes of a chain of Josephson junctions in the simultaneous presence of disorder and absorption. We consider the superconducting regime of small phase fluctuations and focus on the case where the effects of disorder and absorption can be treated additively. We analyze the frequency shift and the localization length of the modes. We also calculate the distribution of the frequency-dependent impedance of the chain. The distribution is Gaussian if the localization length is long compared to the absorption length; it has a power law tail in the opposite limit.
We present a microscopic derivation of self-consistent equations of Anderson localization in a disordered medium of finite size. The derivation leads to a renormalized, position-dependent diffusion coefficient. The position dependence of the latter is due to the position dependence of return probability in a bounded medium.
Anomalies near the conductance threshold of nearly perfect semiconductor quantum wires are explained in terms of singlet and triplet resonances of conduction electrons with a single weakly-bound electron in the wire. This is shown to be a universal effect for a wide range of situations in which the effective single-electron confinement is weak. The robustness of this generic behavior is investigated numerically for a wide range of shapes and sizes of cylindrical wires with a bulge. The dependence on gate voltage, source-drain voltage and magnetic field is discussed within the framework of an e…
We theoretically investigate light propagation and Anderson localization in one-dimensional disordered superlattices composed of dielectric stacks with graphene sheets in between. Disorder is introduced either on graphene material parameters ({\it e.g.} Fermi energy) or on the widths of the dielectric stacks. We derive an analytic expression for the localization length $ξ$, and compare it to numerical simulations using transfer matrix technique; a very good agreement is found. We demonstrate that the presence of graphene may strongly attenuate the anomalously delocalised Breswter modes, and is…
Employing the Kernel Polynomial method (KPM), we study the electronic properties of the graphene bilayers in the presence of diagonal disorder, within the tight-binding approximation. The KPM method enables us to calculate local density of states (LDOS) without need to exactly diagonalize the Hamiltonian. We use the geometrical averaging of the LDOS's at different lattice sites as a criterion to distinguish the localized states from extended ones. We find that bilayer graphene undergoes Anderson metal-insulator transition at a critical value of disorder strength.
The invariant imbedding evolution equations for the amplitude reflection and transmission coefficients of a disordered 1D chain are shown to follow from the continuum limit, for weak disorder, of recursion relations between reflection (transmission) coefficients of Anderson chains of N and N-1 atoms embedded in infinite non-disordered chains. We show that various available analytical and numerical results for reflection phase distributions in the Anderson- and invariant imbedding models are in good qualitative agreement, as expected from the above equivalence of these models. We also discuss t…
We derive an effective low-energy theory of disordered interacting quantum wires. Our theory describes Anderson localization in the limit of vanishing dephasing and reduces to standard abelian bosonization in the limit of vanishing disorder. In a system with many transport channels, it exhibits the diffusive physics characteristic for multi-channel quantum wires.
We study the Anderson orthogonality catastrophe (AOC) in finite conductors with diffusive disorder. The disorder averaged logarithm of $χ$, the overlap between the ground states before and after adding a static impurity, is found to depend nonmonotonically on the disorder. In two dimensions $<\lnχ^{-1}> \propto \ln^2 N$ in the weak disorder limit, thus showing a stronger dependence on the number of electrons $N$ than in the canonical AOC. A very broad tail of the distribution of $χ$, found numerically, is a signature of the importance of a few-level statistics at the Fermi energy.
We consider Anderson transitions in two-dimensional spinful electron gases subject to random scalar potentials with time-reversal-symmetric spin-mixing tunneling (SMT) and spin-preserving tunneling (SPT) at potential saddle points (PSPs). A symplectic quantum network model, named as SMT-QNM, is constructed in which SMT and SPT have the same status and contribute independent tunneling channels rather than sharing a total-probability-fixed one. Two-dimensional continuous Dirac Hamiltonian is then extracted out from this discrete network model as the generator of certain unitary transformation. W…
We study the level repulsion and its relationship with the localization length in a disordered one-dimensional quantum wire excited with monochromatic linearly polarized light and described by the Anderson-Floquet model. In the high frequency regime, the linear scaling between the localization length divided by the length of the system and the spectral repulsion is the same as in the one-dimensional Anderson model without driving, although both quantities depend on the parameters of the external field. In the low frequency regime the level repulsion depends mainly on the value of the amplitude…
Optomechanical arrays are a promising future platform for studies of transport, many-body dynamics, quantum control and topological effects in systems of coupled photon and phonon modes. We introduce disordered optomechanical arrays, focusing on features of Anderson localization of hybrid photon-phonon excitations. It turns out that these represent a unique disordered system, where basic parameters can be easily controlled by varying the frequency and the amplitude of an external laser field. We show that the two-species setting leads to a non-trivial frequency dependence of the localization l…
Several aspects of interplay between Anderson localization and coherent amplification/absorption, and aspect of mirrorless laser for a laser-active (amplifying) disordered dielectric medium have been addressed. We have calculated the statistics of the reflection coefficient and the associated phase for a light wave reflected from a coherently amplifying/absorbing one-dimensional disordered dielectric medium for different lengths, different disorder strengths and different "amplification"/"absorption" parameters of the disordered sample. Problems with modeling coherent amplification/absorption …
We analyse the topological transition and localization evolution of disordered two dimensional systems with non trivial topology based on bipartite lattices. Chern insulators with broken time reversal symmetry show non standard behavior for disorder realizations selectively distributed on only one of the sublattices. The Chern number survives to a much stronger disorder strength (one order of magnitude higher) than in the equally distributed disordered case and the final state in the strongly disordered case is metallic.
Wave propagation in disordered media can be strongly modified by multiple scattering and wave interference. Ultimately the so-called Anderson-localized regime is reached when the waves become strongly confined in space. So far, Anderson localization of light has been probed in transmission experiments by measuring the intensity of an external light source after propagation through a disordered medium. However, discriminating between Anderson localization and losses in these experiments remains a major challenge. Here we present an alternative approach where we use quantum emitters embedded in …
Hyperuniform disordered photonic materials (HDPM) are spatially correlated dielectric structures with unconventional optical properties. They can be transparent to long-wavelength radiation while at the same time have isotropic band gaps in another frequency range. This phenomenon raises fundamental questions concerning photon transport through disordered media. While optical transparency is robust against recurrent multiple scattering, little is known about other transport regimes like diffusive multiple scattering or Anderson localization. Here we investigate band gaps, and we report Anderso…
We discuss a model of random segmented wire, with linear segments of 2D wires joined by circular bends. The joining vertices act as scatterers on the propagating electron waves. The model leads to resonant Anderson localization when all segments are of similar length. The resonant behavior is present with one and also with several propagating modes. The probability distributions evolve from diffusive to localized regimes when increasing the number of segments in a similar way for long and short localization lengths. As a function of the energy a finite segmented wire typically evolves from loc…
The topological Anderson and Mott insulators are two phases that have so far been separately and widely explored beyond topological band insulators. Here we combine the two seemingly different topological phases into a system of spin-1/2 interacting fermionic atoms in a disordered optical lattice. We find that the topological Anderson and Mott insulators in the noninteracting and clean limits can be adiabatically connected without gap closing in the phase diagram of our model. Lying between the two phases, we uncover a disordered correlated topological insulator, which is induced from a trivia…
We numerically analyze the energy level statistics of the Anderson model with Gaussian site disorder and constant hopping. The model is realized on different two-dimensional lattices, namely, the honeycomb, the kagomé, the square, and the triangular lattice. By calculating the well-known statistical measures viz., nearest neighbor spacing distribution, number variance, the partition number and the dc electrical conductivity from Kubo-Greenwood formula, we show that there is clearly a delocalization to localization transition with increasing disorder. Though the statistics in different lattice …
Abstract: Using ab initio calculations supported by experimental transport measurements, we present the first credible candidate for the realization of a disorder-induced Topological Anderson Insulator in a real material system. High energy reactive ball-milling produces a polymorph of Cu2ZnSnS4 with high cation disorder, which shows an inverted ordering of bands at the Brillouin zone center, in contrast to its ordered phase. Adiabatic continuity arguments establish that this disordered Cu2ZnSnS4 can be connected to the closely related Cu2ZnSnSe4, previously predicted to be a 3D topological in…
We develop a self-consistent theoretical approach to the dynamics of Anderson localization in open three-dimensional (3D) disordered media. The approach allows us to study time-dependent transmission and reflection, and the distribution of decay rates of quasi-modes of 3D disordered slabs near the Anderson mobility edge.
We study, both experimentally and numerically, the Anderson localization phenomenon in torsional waves of a disordered elastic rod, which consists of a cylinder with randomly spaced notches. We find that the normal-mode wave amplitudes are exponentially localized as occurs in disordered solids. The localization length is measured using these wave amplitudes and it is shown to decrease as a function of frequency. The normal-mode spectrum is also measured as well as computed, so its level statistics can be analyzed. Fitting the nearest-neighbor spacing distribution a level repulsion parameter is…
Optical nanostructures have proven to be meritorious for tailoring the emission properties of quantum emitters. However, unavoidable fabrication imperfections may represent a nuisance. Quite remarkably, disorder offers new opportunities since light can be efficiently confined by random multiple scattering leading to Anderson localization. Here we investigate the effect of such disorder-induced cavities on the emission dynamics of single quantum dots embedded in disordered photonic-crystal waveguides. We present time-resolved measurements of both the total emission from Anderson-localized cavit…
The level spacing distribution is numerically calculated at the disorder-induced metal--insulator transition for dimensionality d=4 by applying the Lanczos diagonalisation. The critical level statistics are shown to deviate stronger from the result of the random matrix theory compared to those of d=3 and to become closer to the Poisson limit of uncorrelated spectra. Using the finite size scaling analysis for the probability distribution Q_n(E) of having n levels in a given energy interval E we find the critical disorder W_c = 34.5 \pm 0.5, the correlation length exponent ν= 1.1 \pm 0.2 and the…
The physics of Anderson transitions between localized and metallic phases in disordered systems is reviewed. The term ``Anderson transition'' is understood in a broad sense, including both metal-insulator transitions and quantum-Hall-type transitions between phases with localized states. The emphasis is put on recent developments, which include: multifractality of critical wave functions, criticality in the power-law random banded matrix model, symmetry classification of disordered electronic systems, mechanisms of criticality in quasi-one-dimensional and two-dimensional systems and survey of …
We investigate the one-dimensional propagation of waves in the Anderson localization regime, for a single-mode, surface disordered waveguide. We make use of both an analytical formulation and rigorous numerical simulation calculations. The occurrence of anomalously large transmission coefficients for given realizations and/or frequencies is studied, revealing huge field intensity concentration inside the disordered waveguide. The analytically predicted s-like dependence of the average intensity, being in good agreement with the numerical results for moderately long systems, fails to explain th…
Weyl semimetal, a three-dimensional electronic system with relativistic linear energy dispersion around gapless points carrying nontrivial Berry charge, is predicted to exhibit a wealth of unique response and transport properties.A crucial question is whether those properties are robust against disorder and whether Anderson localization occurs.In this work, the effects of nonperturbative topological (vortex loop) excitations and Berry phase in disordered time-reversal invariant 3d Weyl semimetal are studied.It is shown that the chiral symmetry is restored in the nonlinear sigma model describin…
The interplay among topology, disorder, and non-Hermiticity can induce some exotic topological and localization phenomena. Here we investigate this interplay in a two-dimensional non-Hermitian disordered Chern-insulator model with two typical kinds of non-Hermiticities, the nonreciprocal hopping and on-site gain-and-loss effects. The topological phase diagrams are obtained by numerically calculating two topological invariants in the real space, which are the disorder-averaged open-bulk Chern number and the generalized Bott index, respectively. We reveal that the nonreciprocal hopping (the gain…
In a recent communication to the cond-mat archives, Suslov [cond-mat/0105325] severely criticizes a multitude of numerical results obtained by various groups for the critical exponent $ν$ of the localization length at the disorder-induced metal-insulator transition in the three-dimensional Anderson model of localization as ``entirely absurd'' and ``evident desinformation''. These claims are based on the observation that there still is a large disagreement between analytical, numerical and experimental results for the critical exponent. The author proposes, based on a ``simple procedure to deal…
The supersymmetry method for study of disordered systems is shortly reviewed. The discussion starts with a historical introduction followed by an explanation of the idea of using Grassmann anticommuting variables for investigating disordered metals. After that the nonlinear supermatrix $σ$-model is derived. Solution of several problems obtained with the help of the $σ$-model is presented. This includes the problem of the level statistics in small metal grains, localization in wires and films, and Anderson metal-insulator transition. Calculational schemes developed for studying these problems f…
We study the quantum phase diagram of a three dimensional non-interacting Dirac semimetal in the presence of either quenched axial or scalar potential disorder, by calculating the average and the typical density of states as well as the inverse participation ratio using numerically exact methods. We show that as a function of the disorder strength a half-filled (i.e. undoped) Dirac semimetal displays three distinct ground states, namely an incompressible semimetal, a compressible diffusive metal, and a localized Anderson insulator, in stark contrast to a conventional dirty metal that only supp…
We explore mesoscopic fluctuations and correlations of the local density of states (LDOS) near localization transition in a disordered interacting electronic system. It is shown that the LDOS multifractality survives in the presence of Coulomb interaction. We calculate the spectrum of multifractal dimensions in $2+ε$ spatial dimensions and show that it differs from that in the absence of interaction. The multifractal character of fluctuations and correlations of the LDOS can be studied experimentally by scanning tunneling microscopy of two-dimensional and three-dimensional disordered structure…
Isolated Majorana fermion states can be produced at the boundary of a topological superconductor in a quasi-one-dimensional geometry. If such a superconductor is connected to a disordered quantum wire, the Majorana fermion is spread into the wire, subject to Anderson localization. We study this effect in the limit of a thick wire with broken time-reversal and spin-rotational symmetries. With the use of a supersymmetric nonlinear sigma model, we calculate the average local density of states in the wire as a function of energy and of the distance from the interface with the superconductor. Our r…
Phononless plasmon assisted thermally activated transport through a long disordered array of finite length quantum wires is investigated analytically. Generically strong electron plasmon interaction in quantum wires results in a qualitative change of the temperature dependence of thermally activated resistance in comparison to phonon assisted transport. At high temperatures, the thermally activated resistance is determined by the Luttinger liquid interaction parameter of the wires.
The probability distribution of the mesoscopic local density of states (LDOS) for a single-channel disordered quantum wire with chiral symmetry is computed in two different geometries. An approximate ansatz is proposed to describe the crossover of the probability distributions for the conductance and LDOS between the chiral and standard symmetry classes of a single-channel disordered quantum wire. The accuracy of this ansatz is discussed by comparison with a large-deviation ansatz introduced by Schomerus and Titov in Phys. Rev. B \textbf{67}, 100201(R) (2003).
We discovered novel Anderson localization behaviors of pseudospin systems in a 1D disordered potential. For a pseudospin-1 system, due to the absence of backscattering under normal incidence and the presence of a conical band structure, the wave localization behaviors are entirely different from those of normal disordered systems. We show both numerically and analytically that there exists a critical strength of random potential ($W_c$), which is equal to the incident energy ($E$), below which the localization length $ξ$ decreases with the random strength $W$ for a fixed incident angle $θ$. Bu…
