Experimental observation of the Anderson transition with atomic matter waves

Julien Chabé, Gabriel Lemarié, Benoît Grémaud, Dominique Delande, Pascal Szriftgiser, Jean Claude Garreau

Published 2007-09-27, updated 2008-08-06Version 2

We realize experimentally an atom-optics quantum chaotic system, the quasiperiodic kicked rotor, which is equivalent to a 3D disordered system, that allow us to demonstrate the Anderson metal-insulator transition. Sensitive measurements of the atomic wavefunction dynamics and the use of finite-size scaling techniques make it possible to extract both the critical parameters and the critical exponent of the transition, which is in good agreement with the value obtained in numerical simulations of the 3D Anderson model.