Abstract
In this lecture, we discuss the use of high electric fields to study phonon and photon assisted tunnelling processes between localised states in solids. Illustrations will be given, based on recent work on transition metal ion (TMI) compounds and chalcogenide glasses.
Many TMI glasses show a field dependent do mobility of the form μ =μ0.[sinh β F]/βF, where β = ea/2 kT, as expected for simple hopping. But the jump distance (a) is much larger than expected. Several possible explanations are discussed, including the problem of averaging in a disordered system, local field corrections, barriers etc. In contrast, chalcogenide glasses show a non—linear mobility of the form μ = μ0 exp eaF/kT, which extends to very low fields; this is probably a property of localised states near a mobility edge.
Optical hopping, or photon assisted tunnelling has been studied in charge transfer bands in TMI compounds, and also in connection with models of the Urbach edge in amorphous semiconductors. High field studies give a test of these models and will be briefly discussed.
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Austin, I.G. (1976). Hopping Transport in High Electric Fields. In: Devreese, J.T., van Doren, V.E. (eds) Linear and Nonlinear Electron Transport in Solids. NATO Advanced Study Institutes Series, vol 17. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-0875-2_13
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