Tests of a trap-controlled hopping model for PVK

A recent model for the Coulomb-trap controlled hopping mobility in PVK has been tested by mobility and permittivity measurements between -70 and +80°C. The key assumption of the model, viz. a discontinuity in the permittivity and Poole-Frenkel coefficient, has been verified. Some of the previously derived parameters have been revised.     

Options for the neutron lifetime measurements in traps

Different geometries for the neutron lifetime measurements by the method of ultracold neutron storage in material traps and additional possibilities for the neutron storage in the magnetic storage ring are considered.     

Activation energies in hopping transport systems

A phenomenological theory of carrier transport under non-isothermal conditions has been developed to deduce the activation energies (δ) from thermally stimulated current measurements. This theory applies to hopping transport systems as well as band transport systems, but unlike existing theories, it is not limited to band transport systems. The determination of δ by the new method is intrinsically more accurate than existing heating-rate methods, making it possible to study small changes in δ such as field-dependence. The discussion is illustrated with data measured in amorphous PVK.     

Thermally assisted hopping transport in disordered systems

The response to an external field of localized electrons coupled to phonons is investigated. The low frequency (ω<T) linear response function is shown to obey a kinetic equation. The transition probabilities (including multiphonon contributions) can be expressed in terms of the dynamical correlation functions(k, ?) of the phonons. The low temperature d.c. conductivity in three dimensions obeys a law σ(0)=σ₀ · exp(? (T ₀/T)^1/4). By a combined variational and “nearest neighbor” approximation upper limits for the exponential as well as the pre-exponential factor are obtained. In two dimensions the 1/4 in the exponent has to be replaced by 1/3. The one-dimensional case requires separate considerations which do not simply lead to an exponent 1/2. An expression for the thermopower in the hopping regime is derived and evaluated.     

Theory of hopping transfer in disordered systems

The problem of hopping conduction in a system with randomly distributed impurity centers at low temperatures has been considered in terms of the linearized balance equation. The Gochanour-Andersen-Fayer diagram technique has been used to obtain a self-consistent expression for the configuration-averaged Green’s function, which describes the charge transfer in a disordered system with inclusion of Fermi correlations. In the framework of the developed formalism, a relationship has been derived for hopping conductivity as a function of the temperature with a power law of the density of states. The results obtained agree well with the percolation approach and, in the static limit, lead to the Mott’s law.     

Fluorescence lifetime distributions in membrane systems

Membranes are complex biological systems that display heterogeneity at all spatial scales. At a molecular level, the heterogeneity arises from lipid and protein composition. At the cellular level, heterogeneity is due to membrane organization and large scale morphology. A quantitative evaluation of membrane heterogeneity at a microscopic level is very important for several fields of membrane studies. We have developed a method for the analysis of the decay of fluorescent membrane probes that can provide a quantity sensitive to membrane heterogeneity. This method is based on the analysis of the fluorescence decay using continuous lifetime distributions. The major challenge in the interpretation of the analysis results is in the identification, at a molecular level, of the mechanisms that influence the fluorescence decay. In this review we illustrate the principles of data analysis and we show examples of identification of the measured parameters with specific variables that affect membrane heterogeneity.     

Variable range hopping in two-dimensional systems of interacting electrons

Computer modeling of the variable-range-hopping (VRH) conductivity in two-dimensional systems has been done by a kinetic Monte Carlo method, which includes some new elements. Study of the temperature dependence of the conductivity, testing of the different scaling relations, and study of the size effect show the detailed validity of the Efros-Shklovskii theory of the VRH in the system of interacting electrons. It has also been shown that simultaneous transitions of many electrons are not important. The reasons for disagreement with previous computational works are thoroughly analyzed.     

Theory of hopping and multiple-trapping transport in disordered systems

We present a general theory to describe equilibrium as well as nonequilibrium transport properties of systems in which the carriers perform an incoherent motion that can be described by means of a set of master equations. This includes hopping as well as trapping in the localized energy region of amorphous or perturbed crystalline semiconductors. Employing the mathematical analogy between the master equations and the tight binding problem we develop approximation schemes using methods of many-particle physics to derive expressions for the averaged propagator of the carriers and the conductivity tensor. The calculated conductivity and Hall conductivity of hopping systems compare extremely well to computer simulations over the whole range of frequency, density, and temperature. We are able to derive expressions for dispersive transport in hopping as well as trapping systems that contain the results of earlier theories of Scher, Montroll and Noolandi, Schmidlin as special cases and establish criteria for the occurrence of dispersive transport in such systems. We find that in principle hopping can lead to dispersive transport if the times and densities are very low, but actual experimental data are more easily explained in terms of multiple trapping.     

Diffusion and hopping conductivity in disordered one-dimensional lattice systems

We investigate one-dimensional lattice systems with (symmetric) nearest neighbor transfer ratesW _{n, n+1} which are independently distributed according to a probability density(w). For two general classes of(w), we rigorously determine the asymptotic behavior of the relevant single site Green function ₀() near=0, and obtain exact results for the long time decay of the initial probability amplitude and for the low energy density of states. A scaling hypothesis, accurately confirmed by computer simulations, is used to relate the low frequency hopping conductivity() uniquely to ₀(–i), and we conjecture that the resulting asymptotic behavior for() is also exact. The critical exponents associated with the various asymptotic laws depend on(w) and show a crossover from universal to non-universal behavior. Comparison is made with the results of several approximate treatments.     

Direct current hopping conductance in one-dimensional diagonal disordered systems

Based on a tight-binding disordered model describing a single electron band, we establish a direct current (dc) electronic hopping transport conductance model of one-dimensional diagonal disordered systems, and also derive a dc conductance formula. By calculating the dc conductivity, the relationships between electric field and conductivity and between temperature and conductivity are analysed, and the role played by the degree of disorder in electronic transport is studied. The results indicate the conductivity of systems decreasing with the increase of the degree of disorder, characteristics of negative differential dependence of resistance on temperature at low temperatures in diagonal disordered systems, and the conductivity of systems decreasing with the increase of electric field, featuring the non-Ohm's law conductivity.     

Mass measurements of few-electron systems in Penning traps

The accuracy of the SMILETRAP mass spectrometer has been verified by a number of mass comparisons involving well-known masses. Our results for H₂ ⁺,Ne⁶⁺,Ne^{9+ ,10+},Si^{12+ ,13+ ,14+},and Ar^{14+ ,16+} all agree within the statistical errors (0.3–1 ppb) with previous determinations. However, all measurements involving He give a deviation. The combined He^1+,2+ data results in a mass deviation of +1.9 ±0.23 ppb. The uncertainty of the accepted He mass is 0.25 ppb, thus this represents a significant deviation. High statistics comparisons (statistical uncertainty <0.5 × 10^-9utilizing different species (excluding He) and charge states agree within ±0.5 ppb. An analysis estimating the contribution from individual systematic error sources and other auxiliary tests does not allow a systematic error larger than ± 0.85 ppb. We conclude that for now we cannot rule out the presence of an unknown systematic error which in the He comparison results in a near 2 ppb deviation. Thus, as a safety measure we should exclude the He data when calculating the proton mass. The He discrepancy also forces us to give a larger limit of the systematic error of the proton mass than motivated by high statistics comparisons. However, due to the consistency of all other measurements and tests, it appears unlikely that this deviation should be present to the same extent in other comparisons. Thus, for now, after a preliminary analysis we report a proton mass = 1.007 276 466 72 ± 16 ± 85 u, where the errors are the weighted statistical errors and the estimated maximal systematical error, respectively. After a complete analysis we expect the systematic error to be reduced below ±0.5 ppb. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Nonequilibrium phase transitions in stochastic lattice systems: Influence of the hopping rates

Two-dimensional lattice-gas models with attractive interactions and particle-conserving hopping dynamics under the influence of a very large external electric field E along a principal axis are studied in the case of different ratios between the jump rates in the field direction and perpendicular to it using different transition probabilities. We investigate the dependence of the non-equilibrium steady-state properties on the transition mechanism. We find self-similarity with respect to (T, ) and a coexistence curve critical exponent which, for small, seems independent of. There is some evidence that this exponent might be halfway between the equilibrium mean field and Onsager's values. A crossover toward mean-field behavior for large seems also identified.Partially supported by the US-Spanish Cooperative Research Program, Grant CCB-8402025.     

Transit pulse dispersion in PVK

Time-of-flight measurement show that the hole hopping mobility in polyvinycarbazole layers is independent of thickness between 3 and 80 μm. Long-tailed transit current profiles with “knees” are observed at all thicknesses and down to ?80°C, but scale only superficially with transit time. The discrete mobility is reconciled with the transit pulse dispersion by reference to Marshall's computer model of trap-controlled transport.     

Variable-range hopping in 2D quasi-1D electronic systems

A semi-phenomenological theory of variable-range hopping (VRH) is developed for two-dimensional (2D) quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) systems such as arrays of quantum wires in the Wigner crystal regime. The theory follows the phenomenology of Efros, Mott and Shklovskii allied with microscopic arguments. We first derive the Coulomb gap in the single-particle density of states, g(ε), where ε is the energy of the charge excitation. We then derive the main exponential dependence of the electron conductivity in the linear (L), i.e. σ(T) ∼exp [-(T_L/T)^γL], and current in the non-linear (NL), i.e. , response regimes ( is the applied electric field). Due to the strong anisotropy of the system and its peculiar dielectric properties we show that unusual, with respect to known results, Coulomb gaps open followed by unusual VRH laws, i.e. with respect to the disorder-dependence of T_L and and the values of γ_L and γ_NL.     

Bi-states and 2-level systems in rectangular Penning traps

We introduce a notion of semiclassical bi-states. They arise from pairs of eigenstates corresponding to tunnel-split eigenlevels and generate 2-level subsystems in a given quantum system. As an example, we consider the planar Penning trap with rectangular electrodes assuming the 3: (?1) resonance regime of the charge dynamics. We demonstrate that, under a small deviation of the rectangular shape of electrodes from the square shape (symmetry breaking), there appear instanton pseudoparticles, semiclassical bi-states, and 2-level subsystems in such a quantum trap.     

一维无序体系的交流跳跃导电

建立了electronphononfield(EPF)电子隧穿电导模型,推导了一维无序体系新的交流电导公式.通过计算具有20000—65000个格点的无序体系的交流电导率,分析了交流电导率与温度及外场频率的关系,讨论了无序度对交流电导的影响.计算结果表明,无序体系的交流电导率随外场频率的增加而近似线性的增大;无序体系在低温区出现了负微分电阻特性,电导率随温度的升高而增大,在高温区电导率随温度的升高而减小;无序度对无序体系的交流电导影响明显:在低温区,无序度越小,体系的电导率越大;在高温区,适当增大无序度, 关键词： 无序体系 电子隧穿 跳跃电导