Localization and Dynamics in the Strongly Driven Anderson Insulator and Related Models

We study localization and charge dynamics in a monochromatically driven one-dimensional Anderson insulator [1] as well as related models using a mapping of the Floquet Hamiltonian to a hopping problem with correlated disorder in one higher harmonic-space dimension. We focus on the low-frequency, strong-driving regime in this work. Resonances in the analogous model are shown to correspond to adiabatic Landau-Zener (LZ) transitions between lattice sites. These resonances lead to dynamics that appear diffusive over a single drive cycle, but localize into orbits which can be interpreted as the Floquet eigenstates. Actual charge transport occurs over many drive cycles due to dephasing between Mott-like pairs of these orbits and has a logarithmic time dependence. Further, applying a spatially-varying random phase to the drive tends to decrease localization, suggestive of weak-localization physics. We contrast these findings with results obtained for strong drives in related models with extended states with and without topological protection.

[1] Kartiek Agarwal, Sriram Ganeshan and R. N. Bhatt, Physical Review B 96, 014201 (2017).