Orbital magnetoconductance in the variable-range-hopping regime

Abstract

The orbital magnetoconductance (MC) in the variable-range-hopping (VRH) regime is evaluated by use of a model which approximately takes into account the interference among random paths in the hopping process. Instead of logarithmic averaging the MC is obtained by the critical percolating resistor method. The small-field MC is quadratic in H; it is positive deep in the VRH regime and changes sign when the zero-field conductivity is high enough. This behavior (except for the sign change) and the relevant magnetic field scale are in agreement with recent experiments. The calculated MC is always positive for strong fields and is predicted to saturate at sufficiently large fields.