Conductance distribution in 3D Anderson insulators: deviation from log-normal form

Abstract

We show how a recent proposal to obtain the distribution of conductances in three dimensions (3D) from a generalized Fokker-Planck equation for the joint probability distribution of the transmission eigenvalues can be implemented for all strengths of disorder by numerically evaluating certain correlations of transfer matrices. We then use this method to obtain analytically, for the first time, the 3D conductance distribution in the insulating regime and provide a simple understanding of why it differs qualitatively from the log-normal distribution of a quasi one-dimensional wire.