Nanowerk  February 28, 2022 The boomerang effect is a disorder-induced behavior which inhibits transport of electrons turning what would otherwise be a conducting material into an insulator. An international team of researchers (USA – UC Santa Barbara, Brazil, France) reported experimental observation and characterization of this surprising quantum-mechanical phenomenon. They exposed a gas of ultracold lithium atoms to a phase-shifted pair of optical lattices to realize a “quantum kicked rotor,” a momentum-space realization of Anderson-localized matter. They observed the characteristic departure from and return to the origin that is the key signature of the boomerang effect. Detailed characterization revealed the […]