Unified Quantum Classical Theory of Einstein Diffusion-Mobility Relationship for Ordered and Disordered Semiconductors

TL;DR

This paper introduces a unified theory linking quantum and classical electron transport in semiconductors, overcoming limitations of classical models by incorporating quantum effects and electron-phonon interactions across various material regimes.

Contribution

It presents a novel diffusion-mobility relation that captures quantum and classical behaviors in ordered and disordered semiconductors, including nonlinear effects and phase transitions.

Findings

Derived expressions for charge transport in degenerate and nondegenerate materials.

Identified linear dispersion in strongly correlated 2D semiconductors.

Revealed symmetry breaking in nonlinear transport regimes.

Abstract

We propose a unified diffusion-mobility relation which quantifies both quantum and classical levels of understanding on electron dynamics in ordered and disordered materials. This attempt overcomes the inability of classical Einstein relation (diffusion-mobility ratio) to explain the quantum behaviors, conceptually well-settles the dimensional effect, phase transition and nonlinear behavior of electronic transport. Our proposed theory relies on the chemical potential which provides the coupling mechanism of charge-heat current, due to electron-phonon coupling. We have derived expressions which explain charge transport in both degenerate and nondegenerate materials, and also provide the linear and nonlinear relationship between the charge density and chemical potential. Theoretically, we find that the symmetrical nature of electron-hole transport in strongly correlated two-dimensional semiconductors indicates linear dispersion. We also observe the broken symmetry in the nonlinear regime. This generalized diffusion-mobility relation explains both the strongly and weakly correlated systems from low temperature to high temperature, in both the relativistic as well as nonrelativistic domains. In vanishing charge density limit of nondegenerate cases, the nonlinear transport reduces to linear like transport, which is the classical Einstein relation.