Tailoring Anderson localization by disorder correlations in 1D speckle potentials

TL;DR

This paper investigates how tailored correlations in one-dimensional disordered potentials can significantly alter Anderson localization, leading to nonmonotonic localization length behavior with energy, with implications for ultracold-atom experiments.

Contribution

It demonstrates that disorder correlations can be engineered to control localization properties, combining analytical and numerical methods for validation.

Findings

Disorder correlations induce nonmonotonic localization length versus energy.

Analytical and numerical results show excellent agreement.

Nonmonotonic behavior observable in ultracold-atom experiments.

Abstract

We study Anderson localization of single particles in continuous, correlated, one-dimensional disordered potentials. We show that tailored correlations can completely change the energy-dependence of the localization length. By considering two suitable models of disorder, we explicitly show that disorder correlations can lead to a nonmonotonic behavior of the localization length versus energy. Numerical calculations performed within the transfer-matrix approach and analytical calculations performed within the phase formalism up to order three show excellent agreement and demonstrate the effect. We finally show how the nonmonotonic behavior of the localization length with energy can be observed using expanding ultracold-atom gases.