Quantum gases and optical speckle: a new tool to simulate disordered quantum systems

Fifty years ago, Philip Anderson (1958 Phys. Rev. 109 1492) predicted that the introduction of impurities or defects in a conducting material could induce a sudden transition from conductor to insulator. He suggested that electrons that would move freely inside the solid do not simply diffuse on the defects as expected for classical particles but can be completely stopped. Instead of a simple decrease in the conductivity, a total cancellation of the conductivity occurs past a certain amount of disorder. The origin of this phase transition is a fundamental quantum phenomenon, interference between the many quantum amplitudes associated with various trajectories of the electron in the disordered material. This original result is essentially based on a mathematical argument, and after fifty years there are still many open questions (Lagendijk et al 2009 Phys. Today 62 (8) 24). This article provides an overview of how ultracold atoms, when combined with complex optical potential, can provide powerful tools to answer some of them (Aspect and Inguscio 2009 Phys. Today 62 (8) 30).