Suppressing quantum effects by optically driven nonequilibrium phonons

Optically generated nonequilibrium phonon distribution is used for exploring the origin of a nonlocal adiabatic response in an interacting Anderson insulator. Exposing the system to weak infrared radiation is shown to effectively suppress a long-range effect observed in field-effect experiments while producing little heating and barely changing the system conductance. These effects are shown to be consistent with the quantum nature of the effect and therefore are peculiar to disordered systems that are quantum coherent.