Transition between anomalous and Anderson localization in systems with non-diagonal disorder driven by time-periodic fields

In models of hopping disorder in the absence of external fields and at the band center, the electrons are less localized in space than the standard exponential Anderson localization. A signature of this anomalous localization is the square root dependence of the logarithmic average of the conductance on the system length, in contrast to the linear length dependence for Anderson localized systems. We study the effect of a time-periodic external field in the scaling and distribution of the conductance of a quantum wire with hopping disorder. In the low-frequency regime, we show a transition between anomalous localization and Anderson localization as a function of the parameters of the external field. The Floquet modes mix different energy contributions and standard length dependence of the logarithmic average of the conductance is gradually recovered as we lower the frequency or increase the amplitude of the external field. In the high-frequency regime, the system presents still anomalous localization but the conductance is also renormalized, depending on the parameters of the external field, by interference effects at the coupling to the leads. This allows for a high degree of control of the average of the conductance.