We show how a recent proposal to obtain the distribution of conductances in three dimensions (3D) from a generalized Fokker-Planck equation for the joint probability distribution of the transmission eigenvalues can be implemented for all strengths of disorder by numerically evaluating certain correlations of transfer matrices. We then use this method to obtain analytically, for the first time, the 3D conductance distribution in the insulating regime and provide a simple understanding of why it differs qualitatively from the log-normal distribution of a quasi one-dimensional wire.
The combination of strong disorder and many-body interactions in Anderson insulators lead to a variety of intriguing non-equilibrium transport phenomena. These include slow relaxation and a variety of memory effects characteristic of glasses. Here we show that when such systems are driven with sufficiently high current, and in liquid helium bath, a peculiar type of conductance noise can be observed. This noise appears in the conductance versus time traces as downward-going spikes. The characteristic features of the spikes (such as typical width) and the threshold current at which they appear are controlled by the sample parameters. We show that this phenomenon is peculiar to hopping transport and does not exist in the diffusive regime. Observation of conductance spikes hinges also on the sample being in direct contact with the normal phase of liquid helium; when this is not the case, the noise exhibits the usual 1/f characteristics independent of the current drive. A model based on the percolative nature of hopping conductance explains why the onset of the effect is controlled by current density. It also predicts the dependence on disorder as confirmed by our experiments. To account for the role of the bath, the hopping transport model is augmented by a heuristic assumption involving nucleation of cavities in the liquid helium in which the sample is immersed. The suggested scenario is analogous to the way high-energy particles are detected in a Glasers bubble chamber.
We study disorder effects in a two-dimensional system with chiral symmetry and find that disorder can induce a quadrupole topological insulating phase (a higher-order topological phase with quadrupole moments) from a topologically trivial phase. Their topological properties manifest in a topological invariant defined based on effective boundary Hamiltonians, the quadrupole moment, and zero-energy corner modes. We find gapped and gapless topological phases and a Griffiths regime. In the gapless topological phase, all the states are localized, while in the Griffiths regime, the states at zero energy become multifractal. We further apply the self-consistent Born approximation to show that the induced topological phase arises from disorder renormalized masses. We finally introduce a practical experimental scheme with topoelectrical circuits where the predicted topological phenomena can be observed by impedance measurements. Our work opens the door to studying higher-order topological Anderson insulators and their localization properties.
The disorder effects on higher-order topological phases in periodic systems have attracted much attention. However, in aperiodic systems such as quasicrystalline systems, the interplay between disorder and higher-order topology is still unclear. In this work, we investigate the effects of disorder on two types of second-order topological insulators, including a quasicrystalline quadrupole insulator and a modified quantum spin Hall insulator, in a two-dimensional Amman-Beenker tiling quasicrystalline lattice. We demonstrate that the higher-order topological insulators are robust against weak disorder in both two models. More striking, the disorder-induced higher-order topological insulators called higher-order topological Anderson insulators are found at a certain region of disorder strength in both two models. Our work extends the study of the interplay between disorder and higher-order topology to quasicrystalline systems.
We report observations of the Coulomb drag effect between two effectively 2-d insulating a-Si_{1-x}Nb_{x} films. We find that there only exist a limited range of experimental parameters over which we can measure a sizable linear-response transresistivity (rho_{d}). The temperature dependence of rho_{d} is consistent with the layers being Efros-Shklovskii Anderson insulators provided that a 3-d density of states and a localization length smaller than that obtained from the DC layer-conductivity are assumed.
We investigate the Hall conductance of a two-dimensional Chern insulator coupled to an environment causing gain and loss. Introducing a biorthogonal linear response theory, we show that sufficiently strong gain and loss lead to a characteristic non-analytical contribution to the Hall conductance. Near its onset, this contribution exhibits a universal power-law with a power 3/2 as a function of Dirac mass, chemical potential and gain strength. Our results pave the way for the study of non-Hermitian topology in electronic transport experiments.