Disorder-free weak dynamic localization in deformable lattices

TL;DR

This paper investigates electron transport in deformable lattices, showing that thermal phonons induce a weak dynamic localization effect without causing Anderson localization, and identifies transitions between different transport regimes influenced by temperature and nonlinearity.

Contribution

It demonstrates that thermal phonons create a weak dynamic disorder that leads to temperature-dependent localization effects, a novel insight into electron transport in nonlinear lattices.

Findings

Thermal phonons do not induce Anderson localization.

Transitions between ballistic, diffusive, and localized regimes depend on temperature and nonlinearity.

Weak dynamic localization occurs due to electron-phonon interactions.

Abstract

We study the electron transport in a deformable lattice modeled in the semiclassical approximation as a discrete nonlinear elastic chain where acoustic phonons are in thermal equilibrium at temperature T. We reveal that an effective dynamic disorder induced in the system due to thermalized phonons is not strong enough to produce Anderson localization. However, for weak nonlinearity we observe a transition between ballistic (low T) and diffusive (high T) regimes, while for strong nonlinearity the transition occurs between the localized soliton (low T) and diffusive (high T) regimes. Thus, the electron-phonon interaction results in weak temperature-dependent dynamic localization.