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Updated: Apr 26, 2026

Fabrication and Characterization of Disordered Polymer Optical Fibers for Transverse Anderson Localization of Light
Published on: July 29, 2013
Anderson wall and BLOCH oscillations in molecular rotation
Johannes Floß1, Ilya Sh Averbukh1
1Department of Chemical Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, 234 Herzl Street, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Abstract:
We describe a universal behavior of linear molecules excited by a periodic train of short laser pulses under quantum resonance conditions. In a rigid rotor, the resonance causes an unlimited ballistic growth of the angular momentum. We show that the centrifugal distortion of rotating molecules eventually halts the growth, by causing Anderson localization beyond a critical value of the angular momentum--the Anderson wall. Its position solely depends on the molecular rotational constants and lies in the range of a few tens of ℏ. Below the wall, rotational excitation oscillates with the number of pulses due to a mechanism similar to Bloch oscillations in crystalline solids. We suggest optical experiments capable of observing the rotational Anderson wall and Bloch oscillations at near-ambient conditions with the help of existing laser technology.
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