Indian researchers discover a rare electron localisation phenomenon to select materials

Researchers have discovered a rare electron localization phenomenon that could expand material selection options and could be used to improve existing performance of semiconductors or expand their applications in areas such as lasers, optical modulators and photosconductivity.

Anderson localization of elementary quasi-particles such as electrons, photons and phonons in disordered and amorphous semiconductors, proposed by American theoretical physicist P. W. Anderson, is an interesting phenomenon in solid-state physics. It occurs when doping and impurities cause flux absence in metals and semiconductors.

In a landmark discovery, researchers at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, have used oxygen and magnesium as random dopants to demonstrate the semi-classical Anderson transition that creates potential fluctuations (electric potential) and electron bubbles within the dielectric matrix that resists electrical conduction, causing a band structural change in the base material. This creates a situation known as a percolative metal-insulator transition in which the structure remains the same but the electronics change.
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