Microwave-enhanced hopping conductivity: A non-Ohmic effect

Hopping conductivity is enhanced when exposed to microwave fields. Data taken on a variety of Anderson-localized systems are presented to illustrate the generality of the phenomenon. Specific features of these results lead us to conjecture that the effect is due to a field-enhanced hopping, which is the high-frequency version of the non-Ohmic effect, well known in the dc transport regime. Experimental evidence in support of this scenario is presented and discussed. It is pointed out that existing models for non-Ohmic behavior in the hopping regime may, at best, offer a qualitative explanation to experiments. In particular, they cannot account for the extremely low values of the threshold fields that mark the onset of non-Ohmic behavior.