We have fabricated oxygen deficient polycrystalline ZnO films by the rf sputtering deposition method. To systematically investigate the charge transport mechanisms in these samples, the electrical resistivities have been measured over a wide range of temperature from 300 K down to liquid-helium temperatures. We found that below about 100 K, the variable-range-hopping (VRH) conduction processes govern the charge transport properties. In particular, the Mott VRH conduction process dominates at higher temperatures, while crossing over to the Efros-Shklovskii (ES) VRH conduction process at lower temperatures. The crossover occurred at temperatures as high as a few tens degrees Kelvin. Moreover, the temperature behavior of resistivity over the entire VRH conduction regime from the Mott-type to the ES-type process can be well described by a universal scaling law.
@article{arxiv.1702.06729,
title = {Variable-range-hopping conduction processes in oxygen deficient polycrystalline ZnO films},
author = {Yung-Lung Huang and Shao-Pin Chiu and Zhi-Xin Zhu and Zhi-Qing Li and Juhn-Jong Lin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1702.06729},
year = {2017}
}