Magneto-Conductance Anisotropy and Interference Effects in Variable Range Hopping.pdfVIP

a r X i v : c o n d - m a t / 9 5 0 7 0 6 6 v 1 1 7 J u l 1 9 9 5 Magneto-Conductance Anisotropy and Interference Effects in Variable Range Hopping Ernesto Medina Intevep SA, Apartado 76343, Caracas 1070A, Venezuela Mehran Kardar Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, U.S.A. Rafael Rangel Departamento de F??sica, Universidad Simo?n Bol??var, Apartado 89000, Caracas 1080A, Venezuela (February 6, 2008) Abstract We investigate the magneto-conductance (MC) anisotropy in the variable range hopping regime, caused by quantum interference effects in three dimen- sions. When no spin-orbit scattering is included, there is an increase in the localization length (as in two dimensions), producing a large positive MC. By contrast, with spin-orbit scattering present, there is no change in the local- ization length, and only a small increase in the overall tunneling amplitude. The numerical data for small magnetic fields B, and hopping lengths t, can be collapsed by using scaling variables B⊥t 3/2, and B‖t in the perpendicular and parallel field orientations respectively. This is in agreement with the flux through a ‘cigar’–shaped region with a diffusive transverse dimension propor- tional to √ t. If a single hop dominates the conductivity of the sample, this leads to a characteristic orientational ‘finger print’ for the MC anisotropy. However, we estimate that many hops contribute to conductivity of typical 1 samples, and thus averaging over critical hop orientations renders the bulk sample isotropic, as seen experimentally. Anisotropy appears for thin films, when the length of the hop is comparable to the thickness. The hops are then restricted to align with the sample plane, leading to different MC behaviors parallel and perpendicular to it, even after averaging over many hops. We predict the variations of such anisotropy with both the hop size and the mag- netic field strength. An orientational bias produced by strong electric fi