Dynamics and Properties of Electron Glass Systems
Summary
Electron glass systems arise in strongly disordered insulators where localised electronic states interact via long-range Coulomb forces, giving rise to a complex energy landscape and glassy dynamics. At low temperatures, these materials exhibit a suppression of the single-particle density of states around the Fermi level, known as the Coulomb gap, and display pronounced slow relaxation, memory effects and ageing in their electrical conductance. The interplay of disorder and interactions leads to non-ergodic behaviour, whereby the system becomes trapped in metastable configurations and relaxes on timescales spanning seconds to hours. Thermal and quantum fluctuations can partially melt the glassy state, driving transitions to disordered liquid phases characterised by finite conductivity and altered spectral features. Phenomena such as variable-range hopping, avalanches in charge rearrangement and replica symmetry breaking offer theoretical frameworks to capture the emergent dynamics. Electron glasses serve as paradigms for non-equilibrium many-body physics and have implications for the design of neuromorphic elements, resistive memory devices and sensors operating at cryogenic temperatures.
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Dynamics and Properties of Electron Glass Systems publication trend
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Technical terms
Electron glass: A disordered insulating state where localized electrons interact to produce slow, glassy dynamics.
Coulomb gap: A suppression of the single-particle density of states at the Fermi level due to long-range repulsion.
Variable-range hopping: A transport mechanism in disordered insulators involving thermally assisted tunnelling over optimised distances.
Replica symmetry breaking: A theoretical concept describing multiple inequivalent minima in a glassy energy landscape.
Pseudogap: A partial depletion of states near the Fermi energy without a full hard gap formation.
Non-ergodic relaxation: Dynamics in which the system fails to explore all configurations within accessible timescales.
References
- Quantum Coulomb glass on the Bethe lattice. Physical Review Research (2022).
- Suppressed density of states in self-generated Coulomb glasses. New Journal of Physics (2018).
- First order transition in two dimensional coulomb glass. Journal of Physics Conference Series (2017).
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