Electric-field-enhanced conductivity in solids

Abstract

The Onsager theory of dissociation, based upon the solution of Brownian equations of motion of charge carriers interacting through a Coulomb potential in an applied electric field, is shown to account for the electric-field-enhanced conductivity in solids. In contradistinction to often quoted one-dimensional macroscopic Poole-Frenkel theory and its varied three-dimensional modifications, the Onsager theory is microscopic in nature and thus provides a quantitative description of the observed field enhancement of the conductivity.