Measuring a localization phase diagram controlled by the interplay of disorder and driving

Abstract

The interplay of various localizing mechanisms is a central topic of modern condensed matter physics. In this work we experimentally explore the interplay between quasiperiodic disorder and periodic driving, each of which in isolation is capable of driving a metal-insulator phase transition. Using a 1D quasiperiodic cold-atom chain we measure transport across the full phase diagram varying both drive strength and quasidisorder strength. We observe lobes of metallic phases bounded by quantum phase transitions which depend on both drive and disorder. While these observations are broadly consistent with expectations from a high-drive-frequency theoretical model, we also observe clear departures from the predictions of this model, including anomalous changes in localization behavior at lower drive frequency. We demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that understanding the full measured phase diagram requires an extension to commonly-used approximate theories of Floquet matter.

6 pages, 4 figures, supplementary information

References in corpus (3)

• Dynamical control of matter-wave tunneling in periodic potentials
• Delocalization-enhanced Bloch oscillations and driven resonant tunneling in optical lattices for precision force measurements
• The missing quantum number of the Floquet states

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Periodically and aperiodically Thue-Morse driven long-range systems: from dynamical localization to slow dynamics
• Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides under finite-pulse polarized radiation
• Quasiperiodic Skin Criticality in an Exactly Solvable Non-Hermitian Quasicrystal
• Localization and topological signatures under periodic twisting