Hyperdiffusion of quantum waves in random photonic lattices

A quantum-mechanical analysis of hyper-fast (faster than ballistic) diffusion of a quantum wave packet in random optical lattices is presented. The main motivation of the presented analysis is experimental demonstrations of hyper-diffusive spreading of a wave packet in random photonic lattices [L. Levi \textit{et al.}, Nature Phys. \textbf{8}, 912 (2012)]. A rigorous quantum-mechanical calculation of the mean probability amplitude is suggested, and it is shown that the power law spreading of the mean squared displacement (MSD) is $< x^2(t)>\sim t^α$, where $2<α\leq 3$. The values of the transport exponent $α$ depend on the correlation properties of the random potential $V(x,t)$, which describes random inhomogeneities of the medium. In particular, when the random potential is $δ$ correlated in time, the quantum wave packet spreads according Richardson turbulent diffusion with the MSD $\sim t^3$. Hyper-diffusion with $α=12/5$ is also obtained for arbitrary correlation properties of the random potential.

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