What Are One-Dimensional Conductors?

Abstract

“One-dimensional conductors” are materials whose electrical conductivity is high only along one direction. In this volume we shall focus our attention on materials that show a metallic conductivity. In general, the presence of an anisotropy in the electrical conductivity of a material is not a sufficient condition for it to be termed a one-dimensional (1d) conductor. The 1d conductors described in this volume are those in which a band model for electrons is valid along the 1d axis and, along other directions, some other conduction model, for example a hopping conduction model, is applied; that is to say we shall be considering those conductors which have a “one-dimensional conduction band”. More precisely, 1d conductors are materials which satisfy the following conditions: l_∥≳d_∥and l_┴≪d_┴ where l_∥ and d_∥ are the electron mean free path and the interatomic distance along the 1d axis, respectively, and l_┴ and d_┴ are the corresponding quantities perpendicular to the 1d axis.