English

Mesoscopic transport signatures of disorder-induced non-Hermitian phases

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2023-01-27 v2 Disordered Systems and Neural Networks Quantum Physics

Abstract

We investigate the impact on basic quantum transport properties of disorder-induced exceptional points (EPs) that emerge in a disorder-averaged Green's function description of two-dimensional (2D) Dirac semimetals with spin- or orbital-dependent potential scattering. Remarkably, we find that EPs may promote the nearly vanishing conductance of a finite sample at the Dirac point to a sizable value that increases with disorder strength. This striking behavior exhibits a strong directional anisotropy that is closely related to the Fermi arcs connecting the EPs. We corroborate our results by numerically exact simulations, thus revealing the fingerprints of characteristic non-Hermitian spectral features also on the localization properties of the considered systems. Finally, several candidates for the experimental verification of our theoretical analysis are discussed, including disordered electronic square-net materials and cold atoms in spin-dependent optical lattices.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2201.05616,
  title  = {Mesoscopic transport signatures of disorder-induced non-Hermitian phases},
  author = {Benjamin Michen and Jan Carl Budich},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2201.05616},
  year   = {2023}
}