Spin-Orbit Assisted Variable-Range Hopping in Strong Magnetic Fields

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that strong magnetic fields combined with spin-orbit scattering significantly enhance variable-range hopping conductance, providing a new method to probe spin-orbit parameters in localized regimes.

Contribution

It reveals how spin-orbit scattering under strong magnetic fields exponentially increases conductance in variable-range hopping, offering a novel experimental approach.

Findings

Conductance exponentially increases with magnetic field strength.

Spin-orbit scattering sharpens the density of states in the hopping regime.

Experimental study can reveal spin-orbit scattering parameters.

Abstract

It is shown that in the presence of strong magnetic fields, spin-orbit scattering causes a sharp increase in the effective density of states in the variable-range hopping regime when temperature decreases. This effect leads to an exponential enhancement of the conductance above its value without spin-orbit scattering. Thus an experimental study of the hopping conductivity in a fixed, large magnetic field, is a sensitive tool to explore the spin-orbit scattering parameters in the strongly localized regime.