Femtosecond tunneling of polarons in Pb5Cr3F19

Abstract

The complex dielectric constant/ac electrical conductivity was investigated as a function of frequency and temperature in Pb5Cr3F19. The system undergoes a ferroelectric phase transition at higher temperatures. At lower temperatures the real part of the complex ac electric conductivity was found to follow the universal dielectric response (UDR) σ′ ∝ νs, typical for hopping or tunneling of localized charge carriers. A detailed analysis of the temperature dependence of the UDR parameter s in terms of the theoretical model for tunneling of small polarons revealed that, at low temperatures, this mechanism governs the charge transport in Pb5Cr3F19. The value of the inverse attempt frequency τ0 indicates the femtosecond tunneling of polarons in the system similar to the Büttiker–Landauer transversal time.

Keywords

• Low-field transport
• tunneling
• polarons and electron–phonon interactions