Temperature dependence of current noise in discontinuous silver films near the percolation threshold

• Published in: Surface science Vol. 247; no. 2; pp. 337 - 340
• Main Author: BARWINSKI, B
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 01.05.1991; Amsterdam Elsevier Science; New York, NY
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures; Electronic transport phenomena in thin films and low-dimensional structures; Exact sciences and technology; Metals. Metallurgy; Physics
• ISSN: 0039-6028; 1879-2758
• DOI: 10.1016/0039-6028(91)90145-I

The temperature dependence of the electric current fluctuations in discontinuous silver films on evaporated NaCl substrates has been studied below the percolation threshold, i.e. in the insulating region of conduction. The results are explained assuming that the current fluctuations in the film are induced mainly by two mechanism. The first is characterized by an exponential function of reciprocal temperature ( E a = 0.4 eV) and the second by an evidently weaker function of temperature in the examined range (130–300 K). As a plausible explanation it is assumed that the stronger dependence is a result of surface diffusion of silver nuclei on the substrate, and the weaker dependence is induced by the changes of the potential barrier height due to the fluctuation of the number of electron occupied localized states at the metal-insulator interface (similarly to that proposed by M. Celasco, A. Masoero, P. Mazzetti and A. Stepanescu [Phys. Rev. B 17 (1978) 2564]).