ac Conductivity of Glasses

Abstract

We investigate the ac conductivity of glasses due to atomic and electronic hopping between sites with random space and energy separations. Several examples are considered including the structural model of glasses recently introduced by Anderson, Halperin, and Varma, and by Philips. We find that glassy materials should quite generally exhibit a nearly linear conductivity-frequency relationship. The details of any particular conductivity mechanism should be contained in the deviation from linearity.