Application of the field-theoretic method of Bohm and Pines to a study of the metal-insulator transition in doped dielectric media

Abstract

A treatment based on the field-theoretic formalism of Bohm and Pines is presented which reproduces theoretically the essential features of the Mott–Edwards–Sienko relation, na∼¼, for the location of the metal–insulator transition in doped dielectric media, where nc is the critical electron concentration and a is the effective radius. The model allows a study to be made of the dopant electronic wave function from the localized insulating state through to the metallic regime. The effective interparticle interaction shows Friedel oscillations and, at short range, is close to the Thomas–Fermi form. The doping dependence of the electronic hyperfine interaction, total dielectric constant, and ionization energy for a disordered collection of s-state one-electron atoms in a structureless dielectric medium are derived and both are found to be in satisfactory qualitative agreement with experiment. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 71: 111–120, 1999