Effect of Substitutional Impurities on the Electronic States and Conductivity of Crystals with Half-filled Band

Abstract

Low temperature quantum corrections to the density of states (DOS) and the conductivity are examined for a two-dimensional(2D) square crystal with substitutional impurities. By summing the leading logarithmic corrections to the DOS its energy dependence near half-filling is obtained. It is shown that substitutional impurities do not suppress the van Hove singularity at the middle of the band, however they change its energy dependence strongly. Weak disorder due to substitutional impurities in the three-dimensional simple cubic lattice results in a shallow dip in the center of the band. The calculation of quantum corrections to the conductivity of a 2D lattice shows that the well-known logarithmic localization correction exists for all band fillings. Furthermore the magnitude of the correction increases as half-filling is approached. The evaluation of the obtained analytical results shows evidence for delocalized states in the center of the band of a 2D lattice with substitutional impurities.