Quasiclassical description of the nearest-neighbor hopping dc conduction via hydrogen-like donors in intermediately compensated GaAs crystals

Abstract

Expressions for the pre-exponential factor σ_3 and the thermal activation energy ε_3 of hopping electric conductivity of electrons via hydrogen-like donors in n-type gallium arsenide are obtained in the quasiclassical approximation. Crystals with the donor concentration N and the acceptor concentration KN at the intermediate compensation ratio K (approximately from 0.25 to 0.75) are considered. We assume that the donors in the charge states (0) and (+1) and the acceptors in the charge state (−1) form a joint nonstoichiometric simple cubic ‘sublattice’ within the crystalline matrix. In such sublattice the distance between nearest impurity atoms is R_h = [(1 + K)N]^−1/3 which is also the length of an electron hop between donors. To take into account orientational disorder of hops we assume that the impurity sublattice randomly and smoothly changes orientation inside a macroscopic sample. Values of σ_3(N) and ε_3(N) calculated for the temperature of 2.5 K agree with known experimental data at the insulator side of the insulator–metal phase transition.