Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 217, 91-102 (2013)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2013-01758-6

Regular Article

Tailoring Anderson localization by disorder correlations in 1D speckle potentials

Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Institut d'Optique, CNRS, Univ. Paris Sud, 2 avenue Augustin Fresnel, 91127 Palaiseau Cedex, France

Received: 7 September 2012
Revised: 15 January 2013
Published online: 11 March 2013

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.