Enhancement of hopping conductivity by spontaneous fractal ordering of low-energy sites

Chen, Tianran; Skinner, Brian

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.94.085146

Title: Enhancement of hopping conductivity by spontaneous fractal ordering of low-energy sites

Journal Article · Mon Aug 29 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Physical Review B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.94.085146· OSTI ID:1388200

Chen, Tianran ^[1]; Skinner, Brian ^[2]

West Chester Univ., West Chester, PA (United States)
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

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.

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Research Organization:: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Excitonics (CE); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0001088

OSTI ID:: 1388200

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1310839

Journal Information:: Physical Review B, Vol. 94, Issue 8; Related Information: CE partners with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (lead); Brookhaven National Laboratory; Harvard University; ISSN 2469-9950

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 3 works

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