Dissipation-induced transition between delocalization and localization in the three-dimensional Anderson model

We investigate the probable delocalization-localization transition in open quantum systems with disorder. The disorder can induce localization in isolated quantum systems, and it is generally recognized that localization is fragile under the action of dissipations from the external environment due to its interfering nature. Recent work [Liu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 216301 (2024)] found that a one-dimensional quasiperiodic system can be driven into the localization phase by a tailored local dissipation where a dissipation-induced delocalized-localized transition is proposed. Based on this, we consider a more realistic system and show that a dissipation-induced transition between delocalization and localization appears in the three-dimensional (3D) Anderson model. By tuning local dissipative operators acting on nearest-neighbor sites, we find that the system can relax to a steady state dominated by localized states instead of the choice of initial conditions and dissipation strengths. Moreover, we can also realize a steady state dominated by delocalized states from a localized initial state by using a kind of dissipation operator acting on next-nearest-neighbor sites. Our results enrich the applicability of dissipation-induced localization and identify the transition between delocalized and localized phases in 3D disordered systems.