Transmission distribution, P(\ln T), of 1D disordered chain: low-T tail

Abstract

We demonstrate that the tail of transmission distribution through 1D disordered Anderson chain is a strong function of the correlation radius of the random potential, $a$, even when this radius is much shorter than the de Broglie wavelength, $k_F^{-1}$. The reason is that the correlation radius defines the phase volume of the trapping configurations of the random potential, which are responsible for the low-$T$ tail. To see this, we perform the averaging over the low-$T$ disorder configurations by first introducing a finite lattice spacing $\sim a$, and then demonstrating that the prefactor in the corresponding functional integral is exponentially small and depends on $a$ even as $a\to 0$. Moreover, we demonstrate that this restriction of the phase volume leads to the dramatic change in the shape of the tail of $\mathcal{P}(\ln T)$ from universal Gaussian in $\ln T$ to a simple exponential (in $\ln T$) with exponent depending on $a$. Severity of the phase-volume restriction affects the shape of the low-$T$ disorder configurations transforming them from almost periodic (Bragg mirrors) to periodically-sign-alternating (loose mirrors).

14 pages, 8 figures