Disorder Engineering in Quantum Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Material distortion is increasingly recognized as not being purely random but often exhibits significant spatial correlations [1–3]. Such correlated disorder can profoundly alter material properties, giving rise to phenomena such as resonant transfer channels [4], metal–insulator transitions [5], and the appearance of mobility edges [6]. These effects have been experimentally observed in diverse platforms, including ultracold atoms [7,8], superconductors (e.g., scale-free structural organization of oxygen interstitials in cuprates) [9] and photonic systems [11]. Even in open quantum systems, environments with correlated disorder can qualitatively modify decoherence dynamics and many-body localization [12].

Correlated disorder is also central to the functionality of numerous complex and applied materials. In ferroelectrics [13,14], thermoelectrics [15], photoactive compounds [16], and fast-ion conductors [17], correlated deviations from perfect periodicity are not a byproduct but a defining feature of their performance. Harnessing and controlling such correlations, which is increasingly termed disorder engineering, offers a promising route to unlock functionalities that remain inaccessible in either perfectly ordered crystals or systems with uncorrelated disorder [18].

This Special Issue aims to bring together theoretical and experimental contributions that explore the diverse roles of disorder engineering across condensed matter physics, materials science, photonics, and quantum technologies. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Disorder engineering in superconductors, ultracold atomic gases, low-dimensional conductors;
• The interplay of disorder, topology, and electronic correlations;
• Disorder-driven phenomena in photonics and metamaterials;
• Correlated disorder in open quantum and non-Hermitian systems;
• Disorder-controlled behavior in quantum critical, and strongly correlated materials;
• Practical strategies in nanofabrication and material synthesis for tailoring disorder to achieve functional control.

By bringing together perspectives from condensed matter physics, optics, ultracold atoms, materials science, and nanoscience, this Special Issue aims to identify unifying principles of disorder engineering and inspire cross-disciplinary approaches to designing functional quantum materials.

[1] D. A. Keen and A.L. Goodwin, Nature 521, 303 (2015).

[2] A. Simonov and A.L. Goodwin, Nature Reviews Chemistry 4, 657 (2020).

[3] P. F. Damasceno, M. Engel, and S.C. Glotzer, Science 337, 453 (2012).

[4] A. A. Krokhin et al., Phys. Rev. B 80, 085420 (2009).

[5] F. A. B. F. de Moura and M. L. Lyra, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3735 (1998).

[6] U. Kuhl, F. M. Izrailev, and A. A. Krokhin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 126402 (2008).

[7] J. Billy et al., Nature 453, 891 (2008).

[8] L. Sanchez-Palencia and M. Lewenstein, Nature Physics 6, 87 (2010).

[9] M. Fratini, N. Poccia, A. Ricci, G. Campi, M. Burghammer, G. Aeppli, and A. Bianconi, Scale-free structural organization of oxygen interstitials in La2CuO4+y, Nature (London) 466, 841 (2010).

[10] V. D. Neverov, A. E. Lukyanov, A. V. Krasavin, A. Vagov, M. D. Croitoru, Correlated disorder as a way towards robust superconductivity, Communications Physics 5 (1), 177.

[11] O. Dietz et al., Phys. Rev. B 83, 134203 (2011).

[12] M. O. Monteiro, et al., Phys. Rev. A 111, 022212 (2025)

[13] M. Senn, D. Keen, T. Lucas, J. Hriljac, and A. Goodwin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 207602 (2016).

[14] M. J. Krogstad et al., Nature Materials 17, 718 (2018).

[15] B. Sangiorgio et al., Phys. Rev. Materials 2, 085402 (2018).

[16] M. T. Weller et al., Chem. Commun. 51, 4180 (2015).

[17] A. Düvel  et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 139, 5842 (2017).

[18] A. L. Goodwin, Nature Comm. 10, 4461 (2019).

Dr. Mihail D. Croitoru
Guest Editor

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