Features in low-temperature electrical resistivity of amorphous Cd3As2 films due to hopping conductivity with changing activation energy

Abstract

Amorphous Cd3As2 films were deposited on single-crystalline SrTiO3 substrate by high-frequency non-reactive magnetron sputtering. Electrical resistivity of the film, measured within 3-75 K range, increases at cooling. Below ∼70 K, negative transverse magnetoresistance observed. Features in electrical resistivity and magnertoresistance can be attributed to variable-range hopping conductivity of the Mott type with local activation energy, which is temperature-dependent. Two temperature ranges in the hopping conductivity observed. Appearing two ranges is in qualitative accordance with the Mott-Davis energy-band model developed for amorphous semiconductors. High temperature range of the hopping conductivity is attributed to electron hops between localized states, positioned inside band tails, whereas electron hops between localized states, positioned inside Fermi-peak, can be responsible for low-temperature range. At taking into account temperature dependences of local activation energy, universal expression for various mechanisms of the hopping conductivity could be successfully applied to analyze the experimental data.