Thermoelectric Effect in Mott Variable-Range Hopping

Abstract

On the basis of the Kubo-Luttinger linear response theory combined with the scaling theory of Anderson localization predicting the energy dependence of localization length near the mobility edge, we have studied the thermoelectric response of a disordered system exhibiting Mott variable-range hopping (VRH). We found that the low-tempetature Seebeck coefficient for VRH conduction in a $d$-dimensional system varies as $S\propto T^{d/(d+1)}$, which is different from the widely used expression, $S\propto T^{(d-1)/(d+1)}$, based on the energy-independent localization length. It is seen that the low-$T$ behavior of $S(T)$ of the thiospinel CuCrTiS$_4$ is in full agreement with the new scheme.