TY - JOUR
T1 - Slow dynamics of electron glasses
T2 - The role of disorder
AU - Ovadyahu, Z.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Physical Society.
PY - 2017/4/13
Y1 - 2017/4/13
N2 - We examine in this work the role of disorder in contributing to the sluggish relaxation observed in intrinsic electron glasses. Our approach is guided by several empirical observations: First and foremost, Anderson localization is a pre-requisite for observing these nonequilibrium phenomena. Secondly, sluggish relaxation appears to favor Anderson insulators with relatively large Fermi energies (hence proportionally large disorder). These observations motivated us to consider a way to measure the underlying disorder in a realistic Anderson insulator. Optical studies using a series of amorphous indium oxide (InxO) establish a simple connection between carrier concentration and the disorder necessary to approach the metal-insulator transition from the insulating side. This is used to estimate the typical magnitude of the quenched potential fluctuation in the electron-glass phase of this system. The implications of our findings on the slow dynamics of Anderson insulators are discussed. In particular, the reason for the absence of a memory dip and the accompanying electron-glass effects in lightly-doped semiconductors emerges as a natural consequence of their weak disorder.
AB - We examine in this work the role of disorder in contributing to the sluggish relaxation observed in intrinsic electron glasses. Our approach is guided by several empirical observations: First and foremost, Anderson localization is a pre-requisite for observing these nonequilibrium phenomena. Secondly, sluggish relaxation appears to favor Anderson insulators with relatively large Fermi energies (hence proportionally large disorder). These observations motivated us to consider a way to measure the underlying disorder in a realistic Anderson insulator. Optical studies using a series of amorphous indium oxide (InxO) establish a simple connection between carrier concentration and the disorder necessary to approach the metal-insulator transition from the insulating side. This is used to estimate the typical magnitude of the quenched potential fluctuation in the electron-glass phase of this system. The implications of our findings on the slow dynamics of Anderson insulators are discussed. In particular, the reason for the absence of a memory dip and the accompanying electron-glass effects in lightly-doped semiconductors emerges as a natural consequence of their weak disorder.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85017523654&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevB.95.134203
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevB.95.134203
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AN - SCOPUS:85017523654
SN - 2469-9950
VL - 95
JO - Physical Review B
JF - Physical Review B
IS - 13
M1 - 134203
ER -