Electron mobility edge in amorphous polyethylene

Abstract

The conduction mechanism in a material is to a large extent determined by the nature of the electronic states. Localized states give hopping conduction and delocalized states band transport. In amorphous materials there may be a transition from localized states at the band edges to delocalized states higher up in the band. Here we use linear scaling density functional theory and a percolation method to determine electron mobility in amorphous polyethylene. The electron mobility edge is determined to ~ 0.2 eV.