Phonon localization in an ion chain under irradiation with a Bessel laser beam

Abstract

Trapped ions offer an excellent platform to investigate fascinating phenomena in quantum physics. Here we propose an experimental scheme to achieve Anderson localization of phonons using an ion chain under irradiation of a laser Bessel beam. The quasiperiodicity comes from the characteristic of the Bessel beam, which is only relevant to the positions of the individual ions with respect to the standing wave of the Bessel beam, rather than the internal degrees of freedom of the ions. We demonstrate, by the inverse participation ratio, the delocalization-localization transition, which is sensitive to the strength and the phase of the Bessel beam laser. Our model involving long-range phonon hopping could present richer phenomena than the Aubry-Andr\'e model including only nearest-neighbor coupling.