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Tunneling and Percolation Behavior in Granular Metals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2011

I. Balberg ,
N. Wagner ,
Y. Goldstein  and
S.Z. Weisz
I. Balberg
Affiliation:
Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Israel
N. Wagner
Affiliation:
Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Israel
Y. Goldstein
Affiliation:
Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Israel
S.Z. Weisz
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras 00931, Puerto Rico
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Abstract

The nature of the percolation process in granular metals is examined for the first time by a computer simulation of a system of metallic grains embedded in an insulating matrix. Assuming that the intergrain conduction is due to quantum mechanical tunneling it is found that a percolation-like critical behavior of the conductivity is obtained, but that a percolation universal behavior will be found only in a very special case. In contrast, the behavior of the electrical noise does not deviate substantially from the universal one. Comparison of these results with recent experimental observations suggests that in the metallic range, both transport properties are controlled by the continuous metallic network rather than by intergrain tunnelin.. We propose that the metallic network resembles the previously studied system of ‘inverted random voids’.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 195: Symposium S – Physical Phenomena in Granular Materials , 1990 , 233
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1990

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References

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