Charging of highly resistive granular metal films

M. F. Orihuela, M. Ortuño, A. M. Somoza, J. Colchero, E. Palacios-Lidón, T. Grenet, and J. Delahaye
Phys. Rev. B 95, 205427 – Published 22 May 2017

Abstract

We have used the scanning Kelvin probe microscopy technique to monitor the charging process of highly resistive granular thin films. The sample is connected to two leads and is separated by an insulator layer from a gate electrode. When a gate voltage is applied, charges enter from the leads and rearrange across the sample. We find very slow processes with characteristic charging times exponentially distributed over a wide range of values, resulting in a logarithmic relaxation to equilibrium. After the gate voltage has been switched off, the system again relaxes logarithmically slowly to the new equilibrium. The results cannot be explained with diffusion models, but most of them can be understood with a hopping percolation model, in which the localization length is shorter than the typical site separation. The technique is very promising for the study of slow phenomena in highly resistive systems and will be able to estimate the conductance of these systems when direct macroscopic measurement techniques are not sensitive enough.

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  • Received 9 March 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.205427

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

M. F. Orihuela, M. Ortuño, A. M. Somoza, J. Colchero, and E. Palacios-Lidón*

  • Departamento de Física – CIOyN, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia 30.071, Spain

T. Grenet and J. Delahaye

  • Institut Néel, CNRS and Université Joseph Fourier, B.P. 166, F-38042 Grenoble Cédex 9, France

  • *Corresponding author: elisapl@um.es

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Issue

Vol. 95, Iss. 20 — 15 May 2017

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