Abstract
is a prominent example of charge ordering among organic conductors. In this work, we explore the details of transport within the charge-ordered as well as semimetallic phase at ambient pressure. In the high-temperature semimetallic phase, the mobilities and concentrations of both electrons and holes conspire in such a way to create an almost temperature-independent conductivity as well as a low Hall effect. We explain these phenomena as a consequence of a predominantly interpocket scattering which equalizes mobilities of the two types of charge carriers. At low temperatures, within the insulating charge-ordered phase two channels of conduction can be discerned: a temperature-dependent activation, which follows the mean-field behavior, and a nearest-neighbor-hopping contribution. Together with negative magnetoresistance, the latter relies on the presence of disorder. The charge-ordered phase also features a prominent dielectric peak which bears a similarity to relaxor ferroelectrics. Its dispersion is determined by free-electron screening and pushed by disorder well below the transition temperature. The source of this disorder can be found in the anion layers which randomly perturb BEDT-TTF molecules through hydrogen bonds.
- Received 8 March 2017
- Revised 11 July 2017
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.075141
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