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Electrical Conduction in Ensembles of Tunneling-Coupled Fine Particles of Tin. I. Thermally-Activated Tunneling

1976; Physical Society of Japan; Volume: 41; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1143/jpsj.41.841

1347-4073

Takefumi Tsuboi,

Advanced Chemical Physics Studies

Fine particles of Sn mutually coupled by tunneling through oxide are fabricated, in which average particle sizes and the interparticle coupling can be separately controlled. The temperature dependence of the zero-bias resistance, R , of this system is given by \(R{=}R_{0}\exp\sqrt{T_{0}/T}\) in both the normal and the superconducting states, where R 0 is a constant. Another constant T 0 depends on the particle size but does not on the interparticle coupling. This behavior is explained in terms of thermally-activated tunneling in a bundle of linear chains of particles by taking into account a particle-size distribution. The superconducting transition temperature and the transition width increase as the particle size decreases and/or the interparticle coupling becomes weak. Some possible origins are proposed for these effects.