Conduction in granular metals with potential disorder

Electron Transport in Discontinuous Metal Thin Films

The structure and basic experimental electrical properties of vacuum evaporated discontinuous (island) metal thin films of discrete metal nanoparticles on insulating substrates are briefly reviewed. Then the widely accepted Neugebauer and Webb (N&W) electrostatically activated electron tunneling conduction model is covered (with enhancements) before the numerous discrepancies between this model and experimental observations are identified, e.g. minimal substrate bias effect, non-linear field distribution, anomalous AC effects, asymmetrical contact effects, and switching. A modified model, based on contact electron injection and extraction, and computer simulations are introduced which explain these discrepancies at a qualitative level. However, quantitative experimental verification of the model is not possible without stable, reproducible films of known structures. The paper concludes with a review of possible preparation techniques which could yield satisfactory samples, especially self-assembly of organically protected metal nanoparticles. One of these has already demonstrated electrostatically activated conduction.

Tunneling and Percolation Behavior in Granular Metals

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’.

Localization and Its Absence: A New Metallic State for Conducting Polymers

A widely held view in solid-state physics is that disorder precludes the presence of long-range transport in one dimension. A series of models has been recently proposed that do not conform to this view. The primary model is the random dimer model, in which the site energies for pairs of lattice sites along a linear chain are assigned one of two values at random. This model has a set of conducting states that ultimately allow an initially localized particle to move through the lattice almost ballistically. This model is applicable to the insulator-metal transition in a wide class of conducting polymers, such as polyaniline and heavily doped polyacetylene. Calculations performed on polyaniline demonstrate explicitly that the conducting states of the random dimer model for polyaniline are coincident with recent calculations of the location of the Fermi level in the metallic regime. A random dimer analysis on polyparaphenylene also indicates the presence of a set of conducting states in the vicinity of the band edge. The implications of this model for the metallic state in other polymers, including heavily doped polyacetylene, are discussed.