Hopping magnetoresistance in two-dimensional arrays of Ge/Si quantum dots

The temperature and magnetic field dependences of the conductivity associated with hopping transport of holes over 2D arrays of Ge/Si quantum dots with various filling factors are studied experimentally. A transition from the Efros-Shklovskii law for the temperature dependence of hopping conductivity to the Arrhenius law with an activation energy equal to 1.0-1.2 meV is observed upon a decrease in temperature. The activation energy for the low-temperature conductivity increases with the magnetic field and attains saturation in fields exceeding 4 T. It is found that the magnetoresistance in layers of quantum dots is essentially anisotropic: the conductivity decreases in magnetic fields oriented perpendicular to a dot layer and increases in a field whose vector lies in the plane of the sample. The absolute values of magnetoresistance for transverse and longitudinal field orientations differ by two orders of magnitude. Effect of spin correlations on the hopping magnetoresistance is discussed. (c) 2006 WILEY-VCH Vertag GmbH & Co. KG&A, Weinheim.