We study the localization transition in periodically driven one-dimensional non-Hermitian lattices where the piece-wise two-step drive is constituted by uniform coherent tunneling and incommensurate onsite gain and loss. We find that the system can be in localized, delocalized, or mixed-phase depending on the driving frequency and the phase shift of complex potential. Two critical driving frequencies of the system are identified, the first one corresponds to the largest phase shift of the complex potential so that the quasi-energy spectrum is still real and all the states are extended, the second one corresponds to the disappear of full real spectrum, and very weak complex potential leads to the emergence of localized states when the driving frequency is lower than this critical frequency. In the high frequency limit, we find the critical phase shift that separates the two regions with respectively real and complex spectrum tends to a constant value that can be captured by an effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian.
Phase transitions in non-Hermitian systems are at the focus of cutting edge theoretical and experimental research. On the one hand, parity-time- ($\cal PT$-) and anti-$\cal PT$-symmetric physics have gained ever-growing interest, due to the existence of non-Hermitian spectral singularities called exceptional points (EPs). On the other, topological and localization transitions in non-Hermitian systems reveal new phenomena, e.g., the non-Hermitian skin effect and the absence of conventional bulk-boundary correspondence. The great majority of previous studies exclusively focus on non-Hermitian Ha…
We investigate a uniformly coupled non-Hermitian system with asymmetric coupling amplitude. The asymmetric coupling equals to a symmetric coupling threaded by an imaginary gauge field. In a closed configuration, the imaginary gauge field leads to an imaginary magnetic flux, which induces a non-Hermitian phase transition. For an open boundary, the imaginary gauge field results in an eigenstate localization. The eigenstates under Dirac and biorthogonal norms and the scaling laws are quantitatively investigated to show the affect of asymmetric coupling induced one-way amplification. However, the …
Non-Hermiticity can destroy Anderson localization and lead to delocalization even in one dimension. However, the unified understanding of the non-Hermitian delocalization has yet to be established. Here, we develop a scaling theory of localization in non-Hermitian systems. We reveal that non-Hermiticity introduces a new scale and breaks down the one-parameter scaling, which is the central assumption of the conventional scaling theory of localization. Instead, we identify the origin of the unconventional non-Hermitian delocalization as the two-parameter scaling. Furthermore, we establish the th…
The cooperation between time-periodic driving fields and non-Hermitian effects could endow systems with distinctive spectral and transport properties. In this work, we uncover an intriguing class of non-Hermitian Floquet matter in one-dimensional quasicrystals, which is characterized by the emergence of multiple driving-induced ${\cal PT}$-symmetry breaking/restoration, mobility edges, and reentrant localization transitions. These findings are demonstrated by investigating the spectra, level statistics, inverse participation ratios and wavepacket dynamics of a periodically quenched nonreciproc…
Many-body localization is shown to suppress imaginary parts of complex eigenenergies for general non-Hermitian Hamiltonians having time-reversal symmetry. We demonstrate that a real-complex transition, which we conjecture occurs upon many-body localization, profoundly affects the dynamical stability of non-Hermitian interacting systems with asymmetric hopping that respect time-reversal symmetry. Moreover, the real-complex transition is shown to be absent in non-Hermitian many-body systems with gain and/or loss that breaks time-reversal symmetry, even though the many-body localization transitio…
Topological metal-insulator transitions in one-dimensional non-Hermitian quasicrystals: beyond PT-symmetry
College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Ocean University of China（中国海洋大学物理与光电工程学院）；Qingdao Key Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronics（青岛先进光电子重点实验室）；Engineering Research Center of Advanced Marine Physical Instruments and Equipment of MOE（教育部海洋高端装备工程研究中心）；Department of Physics, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学物理系）；Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学量子技术中心）；MajuLab, CNRS-UCA-SU-NUS-NTU International Joint Research Unit（马久实验室，CNRS-南法大学-苏黎世联邦理工学院-新加坡国立大学-南洋理工大学国际联合研究单位）；Center for Phononics and Thermal Energy Science, China-EU Joint Lab on Nanophononics, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology, School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University（同济大学物理科学与技术学院，声子学与热能科学中心，中欧纳米声子学联合实验室，上海市特殊人工微结构材料与技术重点实验室）
Non-Hermitian effects could create rich dynamical and topological phase structures. In this work, we show that the collaboration between lattice dimerization and non-Hermiticity could generally bring about mobility edges and multiple localization transitions in one-dimensional quasicrystals. Non-Hermitian extensions of the Aubry-André-Harper (AAH) model with staggered onsite potential and dimerized hopping amplitudes are introduced to demonstrate our results. Reentrant localization transitions due to the interplay between quasiperiodic gain/loss and lattice dimerization are found. Quantized wi…
This work develops a full framework for non-Hermitian impurity physics in a non-reciprocal lattice, with PBCs, OBCs and even their interpolations being special cases across a whole range of boundary impurity strengths. As the impurity strength is tuned, the localization of steady states can assume very rich behavior, including the expected non-Hermitian skin effect, Bloch-like states albeit broken translational invariance, and surprisingly, scale-free accumulation along or even against the direction of non-reciprocity. We further uncover the possibility of the co-existence of non-Hermitian ski…
Observation of Erratic Non-Hermitian Skin Effect in Phononic Crystals
Institute of Acoustics, School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University（同济大学物理科学与工程学院声学研究所）；School of Advanced Manufacturing Engineering, Nanjing University（南京大学先进制造工程学院）
Time-periodic driving fields could endow a system with peculiar topological and transport features. In this work, we find dynamically controlled localization transitions and mobility edges in non-Hermitian quasicrystals via shaking the lattice periodically. The driving force dresses the hopping amplitudes between lattice sites, yielding alternate transitions between localized, mobility edge and extended non-Hermitian quasicrystalline phases. We apply our Floquet engineering approach to five representative models of non-Hermitian quasicrystals, obtain the conditions of photon-assisted localizat…
We study theoretically quantum states of two repelling spinless particles in a one-dimensional tight-binding model with simple periodic lattice and open boundary conditions. We demonstrate, that when the particles are not identical, their interaction drives nontrivial correlated two-particle states, such as bound states, edge states as well as interaction-induced flat bands. Specifically, the center-of-mass and relative motions of two particles become coupled in a topologically nontrivial way. By virtue of the non-Hermitian skin effect the localization of the center of mass enforces the locali…
We investigate the topology and localization of one-dimensional Hermitian and non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chains with quasiperiodic hopping modulations. In the Hermitian case, phase diagrams are obtained by numerically and analytically calculating various topological and localization characters. We show the presence of topological extended, intermediate, and localized phases due to the coexistence of independent topological and localization phase transitions driven by the quasiperiodic disorder. Unlike the gapless and localized TAI phase in one-dimensional random disordered systems, we …
Non-Hermitian extensions of the Anderson and Aubry-André-Harper models are attracting a considerable interest as platforms to study localization phenomena, metal-insulator and topological phase transitions in disordered non-Hermitian systems. Most of available studies, however, resort to numerical results, while few analytical and rigorous results are available owing to the extraordinary complexity of the underlying problem. Here we consider a parity-time ($\mathcal{PT}$) symmetric extension of the Aubry-André-Harper model, undergoing a topological metal-insulator phase transition, and provide…
Anomalous Localization and Mobility Edges in Non-Hermitian Quasicrystals with Disordered Imaginary Gauge Fields
Sanli Honors College, School of Physics and Electronics Engineering, Shanxi University（山西大学物理与电子工程学院三立荣誉学院）；Institute of Theoretical Physics and State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics Technologies and Devices, Shanxi University（山西大学理论物理研究所量子光学技术与器件国家重点实验室）；State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics Technologies and Devices, Institute of Laser Spectroscopy, Shanxi University（山西大学激光光谱研究所量子光学技术与器件国家重点实验室）
Disorder and non-Hermiticity dramatically impact the topological and localization properties of a quantum system, giving rise to intriguing quantum states of matter. The rich interplay of disorder, non-Hermiticity, and topology is epitomized by the recently proposed non-Hermitian topological Anderson insulator that hosts a plethora of exotic phenomena. Here we experimentally simulate the non-Hermitian topological Anderson insulator using disordered photonic quantum walks, and characterize its localization and topological properties. In particular, we focus on the competition between Anderson l…
We investigate the localization and topological transitions in a one-dimensional (interacting) non-Hermitian quasiperiodic lattice, which is described by a generalized Aubry-André-Harper model with irrational modulations in the off-diagonal hopping and on-site potential and with non-Hermiticities from the nonreciprocal hopping and complex potential phase. For noninteracting cases, we reveal that the nonreciprocal hopping (the complex potential phase) can enlarge the delocalization (localization) region in the phase diagrams spanned by two quasiperiodical modulation strengths. We show that the …
Localization in microcavities revealed by phase-space non-Hermitian skin effect
Institute for Basic Science (IBS)（基础科学研究院）；Korea University of Science and Technology (UST)（韩国科学技术院）；Kyungpook National University（庆北国立大学）；Pukyong National University（釜庆国立大学）；Hanyang University（汉阳大学）；Technische Universität Chemnitz（开姆尼茨工业大学）
Non-Hermiticity from non-reciprocal hoppings has been shown recently to demonstrate the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) under open boundary conditions (OBCs). Here we study the interplay of this effect and the Anderson localization in a \textit{non-reciprocal} quasiperiodic lattice, dubbed non-reciprocal Aubry-André model, and a \textit{rescaled} transition point is exactly proved. The non-reciprocity can induce not only the NHSE, but also the asymmetry in localized states with two Lyapunov exponents for both sides. Meanwhile, this transition is also topological, characterized by a winding nu…
Impurity-induced loss bursts from anomalous scale-free localization in a non-Hermitian dissipative lattice
Institute of Theoretical Physics and State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics and Quantum Optics Devices, Shanxi University（山西大学理论物理研究所和量子光学与量子光学器件国家重点实验室）
Institute for Condensed Matter Theory, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校凝聚态理论研究所）；Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems（马克斯·普朗克复杂系统物理研究所）；CeFEMA-LaPMET, Departamento de Física, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa（里斯本大学高等技术学院物理系CeFEMA-LaPMET）
The localization is one of the active and fundamental research in topology physics. Based on a generalized Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model with the quasiperiodic non-Hermitian emerging at the off-diagonal location, we propose a novel systematic method to analyze the localization behaviors for the bulk and the edge, respectively. For the bulk, it can be found that it undergoes an extended-coexisting-localized-coexisting-localized transition induced by the quasidisorder and nonHermiticity. While for the edge state, it can be broken and recovered with the increase of the quasidisorder strength, and it…
