Anomalous localization in the aperiodic Kronig–Penney model

Abstract

We analyse the anomalous properties of specific electronic states in the Kronig–Penney model with weak compositional and structural disorder. Using the Hamiltonian map approach, we show that the localization length of the electronic states exhibits a resonant effect close to the band centre and anomalous scaling at the band edges. These anomalies are akin to the corresponding ones found in the Anderson model with diagonal disorder. We also discuss how specific cross-correlations between compositional and structural disorder can generate an anomalously localized state near the middle of the energy band. The tails of this state decay with the same stretched-exponential law which characterizes the band-centre state in the Anderson model with purely off-diagonal disorder.