Critical transport in weakly disordered semiconductors and semimetals

Abstract

Motivated by Weyl semimetals and weakly doped semiconductors, we study transport in a weakly disordered semiconductor with a power-law quasiparticle dispersion $\xi_{\bf k}\propto k^\alpha$. We show, that in $2\alpha$ dimensions short-correlated disorder experiences logarithmic renormalisation from all energies in the band. We study the case of a general dimension $d$ using a renormalisation group, controlled by an $\varepsilon=2\alpha-d$-expansion. Above the critical dimensions, conduction exhibits a localisation-delocalisation phase transition or a sharp crossover (depending on the symmetries of the Hamiltonian) as a function of disorder strength. We utilise this analysis to compute the low-temperature conductivity in Weyl semimetals and weakly doped semiconductors near and below the critical disorder point.