Signature of Many-Body Localization of Phonons in Strongly Disordered Superlattices

Thanh Nguyen; Nina Andrejevic; Hoi Chun Po; Qichen Song; Yoichiro Tsurimaki; Nathan C. Drucker; Ahmet Alatas; Esen E. Alp; Bogdan M. Leu; Alessandro Cunsolo; Yong Q. Cai; Lijun Wu; Joseph A. Garlow; Yimei Zhu; Hong Lu; Arthur C. Gossard; Alexander A. Puretzky; David B. Geohegan; Shengxi Huang; Mingda Li

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c01905

Signature of Many-Body Localization of Phonons in Strongly Disordered Superlattices

Thanh Nguyen, Nina Andrejevic, Hoi Chun Po, Qichen Song, Yoichiro Tsurimaki, Nathan C. Drucker, Ahmet Alatas, Esen E. Alp, Bogdan M. Leu, Alessandro Cunsolo, Yong Q. Cai, Lijun Wu, Joseph A. Garlow, Yimei Zhu, Hong Lu, Arthur C. Gossard, Alexander A. Puretzky, David B. Geohegan, Shengxi Huang, Mingda Li

Functional Hybrid Nanomaterials

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Many-body localization (MBL) has attracted significant attention because of its immunity to thermalization, role in logarithmic entanglement entropy growth, and opportunities to reach exotic quantum orders. However, experimental realization of MBL in solid-state systems has remained challenging. Here, we report evidence of a possible phonon MBL phase in disordered GaAs/AlAs superlattices. Through grazing-incidence inelastic X-ray scattering, we observe a strong deviation of the phonon population from equilibrium in samples doped with ErAs nanodots at low temperature, signaling a departure from thermalization. This behavior occurs within finite phonon energy and wavevector windows, suggesting a localization-thermalization crossover. We support our observation by proposing a theoretical model for the effective phonon Hamiltonian in disordered superlattices, and showing that it can be mapped exactly to a disordered 1D Bose-Hubbard model with a known MBL phase. Our work provides momentum-resolved experimental evidence of phonon localization, extending the scope of MBL to disordered solid-state systems.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	7419-7425
Number of pages	7
Journal	Nano Letters
Volume	21
Issue number	17
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c01905
State	Published - Sep 8 2021

Funding

The authors thank R. Nandkishore and P. Cappellaro for helpful discussions. T.N., N.A., N.C.D., and M.L. acknowledge the support from U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (BES), award DE-SC0020148. N.A. acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant 1122374. M.L. acknowledges support from Norman C. Rasmussen Career Development Chair. S.H. acknowledges the support from the National Science Foundation under grant number ECCS-1943895. H.C.P. is supported by a Pappalardo Fellowship at MIT and a Croucher Foundation Fellowship. Work of Q.S. and Y.T. was supported by Solid State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center (S3TEC), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, award DE-SC0001299 (prior to January 2019). Y.Q.C., L.W., J.G., and Y.Z. acknowledge the support from DOE/BES, the Materials Science and Engineering Divisions, under Contract DE-SC0012704. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. DOE Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory, under Contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. Raman measurements were conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility.

Funders	Funder number
National Science Foundation	ECCS-1943895
U.S. Department of Energy
Directorate for Education and Human Resources	1122374
Office of Science
Basic Energy Sciences	DE-SC0020148
Argonne National Laboratory	DE-AC02-06CH11357
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering	DE-SC0012704
Solid-State Solar Thermal Energy Conversion, Massachusetts Institute of Technology	DE-SC0001299
Croucher Foundation

Keywords

Bose-Hubbard model
X-ray scattering
many-body localization
phonon
superlattice

Access to Document

10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c01905

Cite this

Nguyen, T., Andrejevic, N., Po, H. C., Song, Q., Tsurimaki, Y., Drucker, N. C., Alatas, A., Alp, E. E., Leu, B. M., Cunsolo, A., Cai, Y. Q., Wu, L., Garlow, J. A., Zhu, Y., Lu, H., Gossard, A. C., Puretzky, A. A., Geohegan, D. B., Huang, S., & Li, M. (2021). Signature of Many-Body Localization of Phonons in Strongly Disordered Superlattices. Nano Letters, 21(17), 7419-7425. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c01905

@article{1a20e468897b4595a3c997ea11797a98,

title = "Signature of Many-Body Localization of Phonons in Strongly Disordered Superlattices",

abstract = "Many-body localization (MBL) has attracted significant attention because of its immunity to thermalization, role in logarithmic entanglement entropy growth, and opportunities to reach exotic quantum orders. However, experimental realization of MBL in solid-state systems has remained challenging. Here, we report evidence of a possible phonon MBL phase in disordered GaAs/AlAs superlattices. Through grazing-incidence inelastic X-ray scattering, we observe a strong deviation of the phonon population from equilibrium in samples doped with ErAs nanodots at low temperature, signaling a departure from thermalization. This behavior occurs within finite phonon energy and wavevector windows, suggesting a localization-thermalization crossover. We support our observation by proposing a theoretical model for the effective phonon Hamiltonian in disordered superlattices, and showing that it can be mapped exactly to a disordered 1D Bose-Hubbard model with a known MBL phase. Our work provides momentum-resolved experimental evidence of phonon localization, extending the scope of MBL to disordered solid-state systems.",

keywords = "Bose-Hubbard model, X-ray scattering, many-body localization, phonon, superlattice",

author = "Thanh Nguyen and Nina Andrejevic and Po, {Hoi Chun} and Qichen Song and Yoichiro Tsurimaki and Drucker, {Nathan C.} and Ahmet Alatas and Alp, {Esen E.} and Leu, {Bogdan M.} and Alessandro Cunsolo and Cai, {Yong Q.} and Lijun Wu and Garlow, {Joseph A.} and Yimei Zhu and Hong Lu and Gossard, {Arthur C.} and Puretzky, {Alexander A.} and Geohegan, {David B.} and Shengxi Huang and Mingda Li",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 American Chemical Society.",

year = "2021",

month = sep,

day = "8",

doi = "10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c01905",

language = "English",

volume = "21",

pages = "7419--7425",

journal = "Nano Letters",

issn = "1530-6984",

publisher = "American Chemical Society",

number = "17",

}

Nguyen, T, Andrejevic, N, Po, HC, Song, Q, Tsurimaki, Y, Drucker, NC, Alatas, A, Alp, EE, Leu, BM, Cunsolo, A, Cai, YQ, Wu, L, Garlow, JA, Zhu, Y, Lu, H, Gossard, AC, Puretzky, AA, Geohegan, DB, Huang, S & Li, M 2021, 'Signature of Many-Body Localization of Phonons in Strongly Disordered Superlattices', Nano Letters, vol. 21, no. 17, pp. 7419-7425. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c01905

TY - JOUR

T1 - Signature of Many-Body Localization of Phonons in Strongly Disordered Superlattices

AU - Nguyen, Thanh

AU - Andrejevic, Nina

AU - Po, Hoi Chun

AU - Song, Qichen

AU - Tsurimaki, Yoichiro

AU - Drucker, Nathan C.

AU - Alatas, Ahmet

AU - Alp, Esen E.

AU - Leu, Bogdan M.

AU - Cunsolo, Alessandro

AU - Cai, Yong Q.

AU - Wu, Lijun

AU - Garlow, Joseph A.

AU - Zhu, Yimei

AU - Lu, Hong

AU - Gossard, Arthur C.

AU - Puretzky, Alexander A.

AU - Geohegan, David B.

AU - Huang, Shengxi

AU - Li, Mingda

PY - 2021/9/8

Y1 - 2021/9/8

N2 - Many-body localization (MBL) has attracted significant attention because of its immunity to thermalization, role in logarithmic entanglement entropy growth, and opportunities to reach exotic quantum orders. However, experimental realization of MBL in solid-state systems has remained challenging. Here, we report evidence of a possible phonon MBL phase in disordered GaAs/AlAs superlattices. Through grazing-incidence inelastic X-ray scattering, we observe a strong deviation of the phonon population from equilibrium in samples doped with ErAs nanodots at low temperature, signaling a departure from thermalization. This behavior occurs within finite phonon energy and wavevector windows, suggesting a localization-thermalization crossover. We support our observation by proposing a theoretical model for the effective phonon Hamiltonian in disordered superlattices, and showing that it can be mapped exactly to a disordered 1D Bose-Hubbard model with a known MBL phase. Our work provides momentum-resolved experimental evidence of phonon localization, extending the scope of MBL to disordered solid-state systems.

AB - Many-body localization (MBL) has attracted significant attention because of its immunity to thermalization, role in logarithmic entanglement entropy growth, and opportunities to reach exotic quantum orders. However, experimental realization of MBL in solid-state systems has remained challenging. Here, we report evidence of a possible phonon MBL phase in disordered GaAs/AlAs superlattices. Through grazing-incidence inelastic X-ray scattering, we observe a strong deviation of the phonon population from equilibrium in samples doped with ErAs nanodots at low temperature, signaling a departure from thermalization. This behavior occurs within finite phonon energy and wavevector windows, suggesting a localization-thermalization crossover. We support our observation by proposing a theoretical model for the effective phonon Hamiltonian in disordered superlattices, and showing that it can be mapped exactly to a disordered 1D Bose-Hubbard model with a known MBL phase. Our work provides momentum-resolved experimental evidence of phonon localization, extending the scope of MBL to disordered solid-state systems.

KW - Bose-Hubbard model

KW - X-ray scattering

KW - many-body localization

KW - phonon

KW - superlattice

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112550281&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c01905

DO - 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c01905

M3 - Article

C2 - 34314183

AN - SCOPUS:85112550281

SN - 1530-6984

VL - 21

SP - 7419

EP - 7425

JO - Nano Letters

JF - Nano Letters

IS - 17

ER -

Signature of Many-Body Localization of Phonons in Strongly Disordered Superlattices

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this