We develop a formalism to study the role of local defects in tight binding systems in the presence of a strong external ac electric field. It is found that the appearance and disappearance of localized states, as well as their localization lengths, can be controlled by the amplitude or frequency of the driving field. The theory is illustrated by numerical model calculations for imperfect semiconductor superlattices in far--infrared laser fields.

LaTeX, 26 pages (8 figures available on request), Preprint UCSBTH-93-20