Variable-range hopping in quasi-one-dimensional electron crystals

dc.creatorFogler, M. M.
dc.creatorTeber, S.
dc.creatorShklovskii, B. I.
dc.date2003-07-12
dc.date2003-10-27
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T02:52:19Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T02:52:19Z
dc.descriptionWe study the effect of impurities on the ground state and the low-temperature dc transport in a 1D chain and quasi-1D systems of many parallel chains. We assume that strong interactions impose a short-range periodicicity of the electron positions. The long-range order of such an electron crystal (or equivalently, a $4 k_F$ charge-density wave) is destroyed by impurities. The 3D array of chains behaves differently at large and at small impurity concentrations $N$. At large $N$, impurities divide the chains into metallic rods. The low-temperature conductivity is due to the variable-range hopping of electrons between the rods. It obeys the Efros-Shklovskii (ES) law and increases exponentially as $N$ decreases. When $N$ is small, the metallic-rod picture of the ground state survives only in the form of rare clusters of atypically short rods. They are the source of low-energy charge excitations. In the bulk the charge excitations are gapped and the electron crystal is pinned collectively. A strongly anisotropic screening of the Coulomb potential produces an unconventional linear in energy Coulomb gap and a new law of the variable-range hopping $-\lnσ\sim (T_1 / T)^{2/5}$. $T_1$ remains constant over a finite range of impurity concentrations. At smaller $N$ the 2/5-law is replaced by the Mott law, where the conductivity gets suppressed as $N$ goes down. Thus, the overall dependence of $σ$ on $N$ is nonmonotonic. In 1D, the granular-rod picture and the ES apply at all $N$. The conductivity decreases exponentially with $N$. Our theory provides a qualitative explanation for the transport in organic charge-density wave compounds.
dc.description20 pages, 7 figures. (v1) The abstract is abridged to 24 lines. For the full abstract, see the manuscript (v2) several changes in presentation per referee's comments. No change in results
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0307299
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0307299
dc.identifierPhys. Rev. B 69, 035413 (2004)
dc.identifierdoi:10.1103/PhysRevB.69.035413
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/21798
dc.subjectMesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
dc.titleVariable-range hopping in quasi-one-dimensional electron crystals
dc.typetext

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