Anderson Delocalization in Strongly Coupled Disordered Non-Hermitian Chains
Disorder and non-Hermitian effects together can upend how waves localize. In a 1D disordered chain, the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) can induce Anderson delocalization, defying the usual rule that disorder in low dimensions always localizes states. While weak disorder leaves the NHSE intact, strong disorder restores Anderson localization. Here, we study a surprising twist: coupling a strongly disordered Hatano-Nelson chain to a disordered Hermitian chain with their disorder antisymmetrically correlated. Strikingly, once the interchain coupling exceeds a threshold, the system undergoes Anderson delocalization irrespective of disorder strength, reinstating the NHSE with no Hermitian counterpart. This transition arises from the interplay of nonreciprocal hopping, interchain coupling, and engineered disorder correlations, and is captured by a real-space winding number. To confirm this, we build an electrical-circuit analog and directly observe the reemergent NHSE via voltage measurements. Our Letter uncovers unexplored and experimentally accessible physics at the crossroads of non-Hermiticity and disorder.
Authors
- Xin Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5895-0648)
- Wenbo Ju (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7639-6206)
- Xueqin Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6092-872X)
- Zhongmin Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6525-0818)
- Yu-Ran Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6893-2053)
- Franco Nori (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3682-7432)
- Tao Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1826-8019)
- Xiaomin Wei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5067-1732)
- Jin Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8359-3822)
- W. Jin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1089-1754)
Institutions
- South China Normal University (CN)
- University of Michigan (US)
- RIKEN (JP)
- Institute of Theoretical Physics (CN)
- Computing Center (RU)
- RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics (JP)
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
- South China University of Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2025-08-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/lpm2-vcb4
- Citations
- 8
- Primary Topic
- Quantum Mechanics and Non-Hermitian Physics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.97
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province
- South China University of Technology
- Guangdong Provincial Pearl River Talents Program
- Japan Science and Technology Agency
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
- Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology
- Moonshot Research and Development Program