Physical meaning of the so called kinetic compensation effect

It is shown that the kinetic compensation effect (for conductivity called M eyer-Nelder thermodynamic compensation rule) mathematically results from th e exponential form of the Arrhenius rate constant and certain types of appr oximations. A change of activation energy is thus compensated by the same c hange in the logarithm of the pre-factor. As an example, resulting temperat ure dependence of field effect and the activation energy can serve to demon strate a useful tool for the estimation of the role of the interface states while investigating insulator (SiO2 or SiNx) and amorphous (glassy) semico nductor (a-Si).