Anderson localization at the hybridization gap in a plasmonic system

Disorder-induced Anderson localization in quasiparticle transport is a challenging problem to address, even more so in the presence of dissipation, as the symptoms of disorder-induced localization are very closely simulated by the absorption in a system. Following up on recent experimental studies, we numerically study the occurrence of Anderson localization in plasmonic systems at terahertz frequencies. The low losses in the material at these frequencies allow us to separately quantify the localization length and the loss length in the system. We measure a nonmonotonic variation of loss length as a function of disorder, and attribute it to the participation ratio of the localized modes and resulting light occupancy in the metal. Next, we identify a unique behavior of the gap-state frequencies and the density of states under disorder. We observe that the maximally displaced gap-state frequencies have a propensity to remain pinned to the frequency of the gap center. Even under strong disorder, the gap does not close, and the density of states profile continues to remain peaked in the gap, unlike in conventionally studied disordered systems. The origins of this behavior are traced to the nature of the quasiparticle dispersion. In our case, the quasiparticles are identified to be hybrid plasmons generated due to the hybridization of surface plasmon polaritons at a metal-dielectric interface and cavity resonances at subwavelength apertures thereon. This situation is akin to the Kondo systems, where dispersive conduction electrons hybridze with a localized impurity state opening a hybridization gap. Our results provide new insights on the elusive problem of the interplay of loss and localization, and underlines interesting physics at the hybridization gap in hybrid plasmonic systems.