Effective description of hopping transport in granular metals

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical model for variable range hopping transport in granular metals, emphasizing sequential tunnelling and Coulomb interactions, applicable to systems with weak intergrain tunneling.

Contribution

It introduces a novel technique modeling quantum tunnelling as classical particle trajectories in higher dimensions for granular conductors.

Findings

Provides a detailed description of hopping conductivity in granular systems.

Extends understanding of electron transport with strong Coulomb interactions.

Applicable to systems with small tunneling conductances.

Abstract

We develop a theory of a variable range hopping transport in granular conductors based on the sequential electron tunnelling through many grains in the presence of the strong Coulomb interaction. The processes of quantum tunnelling of real electrons are represented as trajectories (world lines) of charged classical particles in d+1 dimensions. We apply the developed technique to investigate the hopping conductivity of granular systems in the regime of small tunneling conductances between the grains g << 1.