Resonant extended states in driven quasiperiodic lattices: Aubry-Andre localization by design

Abstract

We consider a quasiperiodic Aubry-Andre (AA) model and add a weak time-space-periodic perturbation. The undriven AA model is chosen to be well in the localized regime. The driving term controls the effective number of propagation channels. For a spatial resonance which reduces the reciprocal space dynamics to an effective one-dimensional two-leg ladder, the ac perturbation resonantly couples certain groups of localized eigenstates of the undriven AA model and turns them into extended ones. Slight detuning of the spatial and temporal frequencies off resonance returns these states into localized ones. We analyze the details of the resonant extended eigenstates using Floquet representations. In particular, we find that their size grows linearly with the system size. Initial wave packets overlap with resonant extended eigenstates and lead to ballistic spreading.