Conductance statistics in small GaAs:Si wires at low temperatures. I. Theoretical analysis: truncated quantum fluctuations in insulating wires

TL;DR

This paper provides a detailed theoretical analysis of conductance fluctuations in small GaAs:Si wires at low temperatures, focusing on the interplay of quantum effects and impurity-induced geometrical fluctuations in one-dimensional insulating systems.

Contribution

It extends previous work by Raikh and Ruzin to explain large conductance fluctuations through a combined quantum and geometrical fluctuation model.

Findings

Results align well with experimental data.

Numerical simulations confirm theoretical predictions.

Highlights the role of impurity configurations in conductance variability.

Abstract

We analyse in detail Mott's variable range hopping in one dimension, expanding on earlier work by Raikh and Ruzin. We show that the large conductance fluctuations in disordered insulators result from a subtle interplay between purely quantum phenomena and geometrical fluctuations arising from the energies and locations of the impurities. Our results compare very well with both experiments and numerical simulations.