Mott-Anderson Transition in Molecular Conductors: Influence of Randomness on Strongly Correlated Electrons in the κ-(BEDT-TTF)₂X System

Abstract: The Mott-Anderson transition has been known as a metal-insulator (MI) transition due to both strong electron-electron interaction and randomness of the electrons. For example, the MI transition in doped semiconductors and transition metal oxides has been investigated up to now as a typical example of the Mott-Anderson transition for changing electron correlations by carrier number control in concurrence with inevitable randomness. On the other hand, molecular conductors have been known as typical strongly correlated electron systems with bandwidth controlled Mott transition. In this paper, we demonstrate our recent studies on the randomness effect of the strongly correlated electrons of the BEDT-TTF molecule based organic conductors. X-ray irradiation on the crystals introduces molecular defects in the insulating anion layer, which cause random potential modulation of the correlated electrons in the conductive BEDT-TTF layer. In combination with hydrostatic pressure, we are able to control the parameters for randomness and correlations for electrons approaching the Mott-Anderson transition.