Abstract
The problem of metal-insulator transition is considered. It is shown that the Mott criterion aB(nc)1/3≈0.25 is applicable not only to heavily doped semiconductors but also to many other materials, including some transition-metal compounds, such as vanadium oxides (particularly, VO2 and V2O3). The low-temperature transition (“paramagnetic metal—antiferromagnetic insulator”) in vanadium sesquioxide is described on the basis of this concept in terms of an intervening phase, between metal and insulator states, with divergent dielectric constant and effective charge carrier mass. Recent communications concerning a possible “metal-insulator transition” in vanadium pentoxide are also discussed.
Highlights
Correlated transition metal oxides exhibiting metalinsulator transitions (MIT) are currently considered as basic functional materials of oxide electronics [1]
It is shown in the present study that the Mott criterion is applicable to heavily doped semiconductors and to many other compounds, including such materials, important for the MIT problem on the whole, as vanadium oxides, VO2 and V2O3
Further studies seem to be of importance, focused on thorough measurements of the dielectric constant, effective mass, and carrier mobility values of both vanadium oxide Magneli phases [21, 34,35,36,37] and other strongly correlated f- and dcompounds undergoing Mott metal-insulator transitions
Summary
Correlated transition metal oxides exhibiting metalinsulator transitions (MIT) are currently considered as basic functional materials of oxide electronics [1]. A number of papers [4,5,6] have appeared concerning a “metal-insulator transition” in V2O5 [3]. The fact is that the term “metal-insulator transition”, with respect to vanadium oxides (and to these—generally to a variety of transition metal oxides and related materials [7]), has long been used in the scientific literature to describe quite a certain class of phenomena and experimental facts. The MITs in V2O3 are discussed, and an attempt is made to describe them in terms of a model based on the Mott criterion concept, developing some ideas of our previous work [7].
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