We investigate the properties of PT-symmetric tight-binding models by considering both bounded and unbounded models. For the bounded case, we obtain closed form expressions for the corresponding energy spectra and we analyze the structure of eigenstates as well as their dependence on the gain/loss contrast parameter. For unbounded PT-lattices, we explore their scattering properties through the development of analytical models. Based on our approach we identify a mechanism that is responsible to the emergence of localized states that are entirely due to the presence of gain and loss. The derived expressions for the transmission and reflection coefficients allow one to better understand the role of PT-symmetry in energy transport problems occurring in such PT-symmetric tight-binding settings. Our analytical results are further exemplified via pertinent examples.

We propose a versatile approach for generating multipartite W states in predesigned on-chip multiport photonic lattices. It is shown that is possible to produce photon-encoded W states where exactly one photon is coherently "shared" among N optical modes by judiciously adjusting the coupling coefficients involved in one-dimensional arrays of evanescently coupled single-mode waveguides. Two-dimensional waveguide configurations are also investigated as possible avenues to produce W states with equal probability amplitudes and equal relative phases.

We analyse the anomalous properties of specific electronic states in the Kronig-Penney model with weak compositional and structural disorder. Using the Hamiltonian map approach, we show that the localisation length of the electronic states exhibits a resonant effect close to the band centre and anomalous scaling at the band edges. These anomalies are akin to the corresponding ones found in the Anderson model with diagonal disorder. We also discuss how specific cross-correlations between compositional and structural disorder can generate an anomalously localised state near the middle of the energy band. The tails of this state decay with the same stretched-exponential law which characterises the band-centre state in the Anderson model with purely off-diagonal disorder.

We study the structure of the electronic states and the transport properties of a Kronig-Penney model with weak compositional and structural disorder. Using a perturbative approach we obtain an analytical expression for the localisation length which is valid for disorder with arbitrary correlations. We show how to generate disorder with self-and cross-correlations and we analyse both the known delocalisation effects of the long-range self-correlations and new effects produced by cross-correlations. We finally discuss how both kinds of correlations alter the transport properties in Kronig-Penney models of finite size.

We analyse the single-mode transmission of microwaves in a guide with internal random structure. The waveguide contains scatterers characterized by random heights and positions, corresponding to compositional and structural disorder. We measure the effects of cross-correlations between two kinds of disorder, showing how they enhance or attenuate the experimentally found transmission gaps generated by long-range self-correlations. The results agree with the theoretical predictions obtained for the aperiodic Kronig-Penney model and prove that self-and cross-correlations also have relevant effects in finite disordered samples of small size.