Pinning of a High-Energy Wavepacket by a Single Impurity

Abstract

We demonstrate that a single repulsive impurity enhances directional confinement of a high-energy wavepacket in a finite two-dimensional lattice of quantum wells. At energies far above the interwell barriers, the impurity suppresses transverse dynamical tunneling while preserving propagation along a principal lattice axis, even as the corresponding classical regular region shrinks. Confinement is strongest at impurity amplitudes comparable to the barrier height and weakens for stronger perturbations. Spectral analysis links this nonmonotonic pinning to the wavepacket's overlap with eigenstates concentrated along the launch direction, consistent with impurity-induced variational scarring. These results show that a single local defect can control quantum propagation over distances far exceeding its own spatial extent.