Towards a Quantum Diode: Transport and Countertransport in an Anderson-localized System

Many-body localized systems are known to exhibit interesting transport and rectification effects. Inspired by Feynman’s classic example of the Brownian ratchet and pawl system, transport effects within localized systems are studied. In particular, this work specializes to a simple model of localized single-particle hopping in a 1D disordered tight-binding model, and demonstrates regimes of transport of particle density under periodic driving dynamics. An interesting effect, termed “countertransport”, is found to occur under certain parameters, where density is transported against the direction of drive. In addition, this work seeks to use generative unsupervised machine learning models to characterize the types of disorder landscapes that are conducive to transport and countertransport. A better understanding of transport dynamics in such localized systems may prove useful in experimental realizations of quantum electronics.