Variable range hopping conduction in n-CdSe samples at very low temperature

Abstract

We reanalyzed experimental data already published in Friedman J R, Zhang Y, Dai P, et al. Phys Rev B, 1996, 53(15): 9528. Variable range hopping (VRH) conduction in the insulating three-dimensional n-CdSe samples has been studied over the entire temperature range from 0.03 to 1 K. In the absence of a magnetic field, the low temperature conductivity σ of the three samples (A, B and C) obeys the Mott VRH conduction with an appropriate temperature dependence in the prefactor (σ = σ0 exp[–(T0/T)]p with p ≈ 0.25). This behavior can be explained by a VRH model where the transport occurs by hopping between localized states in the vicinity of the Fermi level, EF, without creation of the Coulomb gap (CG). On the contrary, no Efros-Shklovskii VRH is observed, suggesting that the density is constant in the vicinity of the EF.