Fluctuation corrections to Lifshitz tails in disordered systems

Abstract

Quenched disorder in semiconductors induces localized electronic states at the band edge, which manifest as an exponential tail in the density of states. For large impurity densities, this tail takes a universal Lifshitz form that is characterized by short-ranged potential fluctuations. We provide both analytical expressions and numerical values for the Lifshitz tail of a parabolic conduction band, including its exact fluctuation prefactor. Our analysis is based on a replica field integral approach, where the leading exponential scaling of the tail is determined by an instanton profile, and fluctuations around the instanton determine the subleading pre-exponential factor. This factor contains the determinant of a fluctuation operator, and we avoid a full computation of its spectrum by using a Gel'fand-Yaglom formalism, which provides a concise general derivation of fluctuation corrections in disorder problems. We provide a revised result for the disorder band tail in two dimensions.