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Article
Enhancement of hopping conductivity by spontaneous fractal ordering of low-energy sites
Physical Review B
  • Tianran Chen, West Chester University of Pennsylvania
  • Brian Skinner, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-29-2016
Abstract

Variable-range hopping conductivity has long been understood in terms of a canonical prescription for relating the single-particle density of states to the temperature-dependent conductivity. Here we demonstrate that this prescription breaks down in situations where a large and long-ranged random potential develops. In particular, we examine a canonical model of a completely compensated semiconductor, and we show that at low temperatures hopping proceeds along self-organized, low-dimensional subspaces having fractal dimension d = 2. We derive and study numerically the spatial structure of these subspaces, as well as the conductivity and density of states that result from them. One of our prominent findings is that fractal ordering of low energy sites greatly enhances the hopping conductivity and allows Efros-Shklovskii type conductivity to persist up to unexpectedly high temperatures.

Publisher
American Physical Society
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevB.94.085146
Citation Information
Tianran Chen and Brian Skinner. "Enhancement of hopping conductivity by spontaneous fractal ordering of low-energy sites" Physical Review B Vol. 94 Iss. 8 (2016) p. 085146-1 - 085146-9 ISSN: 2469-9950
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/tianran-chen/1/