Truncated Levy statistics for transport in disordered semiconductors

Probabilistic interpretation of transition from the dispersive transport regime to the quasi-Gaussian one in disordered semiconductors is given in terms of truncated Levy distributions. Corresponding transport equations with fractional order derivatives are derived. We discuss physical causes leading to truncated waiting time distributions in the process and describe influence of truncation on carrier packet form, transient current curves and frequency dependence of conductivity. Theoretical results are in a good agreement with experimental facts.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, presented in "Nonlinear Science and Complexity - 2010" (Turkey, Ankara

Fractional Derivative Phenomenology of Percolative Phonon-Assisted Hopping in Two-Dimensional Disordered Systems

Anomalous advection-diffusion in two-dimensional semiconductor systems with coexisting energetic and structural disorder is described in the framework of a generalized model of multiple trapping on a comb-like structure. The basic equations of the model contain fractional-order derivatives. To validate the model, we compare analytical solutions with results of a Monte Carlo simulation of phonon-assisted tunneling in two-dimensional patterns of a porous nanoparticle agglomerate and a phase-separated bulk heterojunction. To elucidate the role of directed percolation, we calculate transient current curves of the time-of-flight experiment and the evolution of the mean squared displacement averaged over medium realizations. The variations of the anomalous advection-diffusion parameters as functions of electric field intensity, levels of energetic, and structural disorder are presented

Anomalous Grain Boundary Diffusion: Fractional Calculus Approach

Grain boundary (GB) diffusion in engineering materials at elevated temperatures often determines the evolution of microstructure, phase transformations, and certain regimes of plastic deformation and fracture. Interpreting experimental data with the use of the classical Fisher model sometimes encounters contradictions that can be related to violation of Fick’s law. Here, we generalize the Fisher model to the case of non-Fickian (anomalous) diffusion ubiquitous in disordered materials. The process is formulated in terms of the subdiffusion equations with time-fractional derivatives of order α∈(0,1] and β∈(0,1] for grain volume and GB, respectively. It is shown that propagation along GB for the case of a localized instantaneous source and weak localization in GB (β>α/2) is approximately described by distributed-order subdiffusion with exponents α/2 and β. The mean square displacement is calculated with the use of the alternating renewal process model. The tail of the impurity concentration profiles along the z axis is approximately described by the dependence ∝exp(-Az6/5) for all 0<α≤1, as in the case of normal GB diffusion, so the 6/5-law itself can serve as an identifier of a more general phenomenon, namely, anomalous GB diffusion

Fractal Generalization of the Scher–Montroll Model for Anomalous Transit-Time Dispersion in Disordered Solids

The Scher&ndash;Montroll model successfully describes subdiffusive photocurrents in homogeneously disordered semiconductors. The present paper generalizes this model to the case of fractal spatial disorder (self-similar random distribution of localized states) under the conditions of the time-of-flight experiment. Within the fractal model, we calculate charge carrier densities and transient current for different cases, solving the corresponding fractional-order equations of dispersive transport. Photocurrent response after injection of non-equilibrium carriers by the short laser pulse is expressed via fractional stable distributions. For the simplest case of one-sided instantaneous jumps (tunneling) between neighboring localized states, the dispersive transport equation contains fractional Riemann&ndash;Liouville derivatives on time and longitudinal coordinate. We discuss the role of back-scattering, spatial correlations induced by quenching of disorder, and spatiotemporal non-locality produced by the fractal trap distribution and the finite velocity of motion between localized states. We derive expressions for the photocurrent and transit time that allow us to determine the fractal dimension of the distribution of traps and the dispersion parameter from the time-of-flight measurements