Effect of short-ranged spatial correlations on the Anderson localization of phonons in mass-disordered systems

Abstract

We investigate the effect of spatially correlated disorder on the Anderson transition of phonons in three dimensions using a Green’s function-based approach, namely, the typical medium dynamical cluster approximation, in mass-disordered systems. We numerically demonstrate that correlated disorder with pairwise correlations mitigates the localization of the vibrational modes. A correlation-driven localization–delocalization transition can emerge in a three-dimensional disordered system with an increase in the strength of correlations.