Coherent "metallic" resistance and medium localization in a disordered one-dimensional insulator.
It is believed that a disordered one-dimensional (1D) wire with coherent electronic conduction is an insulator with the mean resistance <rho> approximately equal e(2L/xi) and resistance dispersion Delta(rho) approximately equal e(L/xi), where L is the wire length and xi is the electron localization length. Here we show that this 1D insulator undergoes at full coherence the crossover to a 1D "metal," caused by thermal smearing and resonant tunneling. As a result, Delta(rho) is smaller than unity and tends to be L/xi independent, while <rho> grows with L/xi first nearly linearly and then polynomially, manifesting the so-called medium localization.
Mosko
Martin
M
Institute of Electrical Engineering, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 841 04 Bratislava, Slovakia.
Vagner
Pavel
P
Bajdich
Michal
M
Schäpers
Thomas
T