We show that a one dimensional disordered conductor with correlated disorder has an extended state and a Landauer resistance that is non-zero in the limit of infinite system size in contrast to the predictions of the scaling theory of Anderson localization. The delocalization transition is not related to any underlying symmetry of the model such as particle-hole symmetry. For a wire of finite length the effect manifests as a sharp transmission resonance that narrows as the length of the wire is increased. Experimental realizations and applications are discussed including the possibility of constructing a narrow band light filter.
The disordered many-body systems can undergo a transition from the extended ensemble to a localized ensemble, known as many-body localization (MBL), which has been intensively explored in recent years. Nevertheless, the relation between Anderson localization (AL) and MBL is still elusive. Here we show that the MBL can be regarded as an infinite-dimensional AL with the correlated disorder in a virtual lattice. We demonstrate this idea using the disordered XXZ model, in which the excitation of $d$ spins over the fully polarized phase can be regarded as a single-particle model in a $d$ dimensional virtual lattice. With the increasing of $d$, the system will quickly approach the MBL phase, in which the infinite-range correlated disorder ensures the saturation of the critical disorder strength in the thermodynamic limit. From the transition from AL to MBL, the entanglement entropy and the critical exponent from energy level statics are shown to depend weakly on the dimension, indicating that belonging to the same universal class. This work clarifies the fundamental concept of MBL and presents a new picture for understanding the MBL phase in terms of AL.
An electron is usually considered to have only one type of kinetic energy, but could it have more, for its spin and charge, or by exciting other electrons? In one dimension (1D), the physics of interacting electrons is captured well at low energies by the Tomonaga-Luttinger-Liquid (TLL) model, yet little has been observed experimentally beyond this linear regime. Here, we report on measurements of many-body modes in 1D gated-wires using a tunnelling spectroscopy technique. We observe two separate Fermi seas at high energies, associated with spin and charge excitations, together with the emergence of three additional 1D replica modes that strengthen with decreasing wire length. The effective interaction strength in the wires is varied by changing the amount of 1D inter-subband screening by over 45%. Our findings demonstrate the existence of spin-charge separation in the whole energy band outside the low-energy limit of validity of the TLL model, and also set a limit on the validity of the newer nonlinear TLL theory.
We report on the impact of variable-scale disorder on 3D Anderson localization of a non-interacting ultracold atomic gas. A spin-polarized gas of fermionic atoms is localized by allowing it to expand in an optical speckle potential. Using a sudden quench of the localized density distribution, we verify that the density profile is representative of the underlying single-particle localized states. The geometric mean of the disordering potential correlation lengths is varied by a factor of four via adjusting the aperture of the speckle focusing lens. We observe that the root-mean-square size of the localized gas increases approximately linearly with the speckle correlation length, in qualitative agreement with the scaling predicted by weak scattering theory.
We study the effect of the edge disorder on the conductance of the graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). We find that only very modest edge disorder is sufficient to induce the conduction energy gap in the otherwise metallic GNRs and to lift any difference in the conductance between nanoribbons of different edge geometry. We relate the formation of the conduction gap to the pronounced edge disorder induced Anderson-type localization which leads to the strongly enhanced density of states at the edges, formation of surface-like states and to blocking of conductive paths through the ribbons.
We study the decoherence and relaxation of a single elementary electronic excitation propagating in a one-dimensional chiral conductor. Using two-particle interferences in the electronic analog of the Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment, we analyze quantitatively the decoherence scenario of a single electron propagating along a quantum Hall edge channel at filling factor 2. The decoherence results from the emergence of collective neutral excitations induced by Coulomb interaction and leading, in one dimension, to the destruction of the elementary quasiparticle. This study establishes the relevance of electron quantum optics setups to provide stringent tests of strong interaction effects in one-dimensional conductors described by Luttinger liquids paradigm.