IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v207y1994i1p323-328.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nonlinear electrical response and breakdown of semicontinuous metal films

Author

Listed:
  • Yagil, Yoad
  • Deutscher, Guy
  • Bergman, David J.

Abstract

The weakly nonlinear electrical response, determined by 3rd harmonic generation, and the breakdown current Ib of percolating systems are measured in real materials: semicontinuous Ag and Au films. The 3rd harmonic is interpreted as a direct measure of the 4th moment of the current distribution, and thus provides the critical exponent κ (normally determined by 1/ƒ noise measurements). Observations of higher harmonics (5th and 7th), corresponding to higher moments of the current distribution, provide an estimation of higher critical indices. The breakdown current Ib was measured over three decades of film resistance. A new criterion for Ib is suggested, defined as the current at which a hot spot reaches the melting temperature of the metallic grains Tm. This criterion remains valid in the presence of nonlinear effects. The hot spot model yields a power law Ib ∞B-x, B=V3ƒ/I3 where the upper and lower bounds of x are found to be 0.5 (extreme case of continuum percolation) and 0.36 (lattice percolation lower bound), respectively, in excellent agreement with the measured data.

Suggested Citation

  • Yagil, Yoad & Deutscher, Guy & Bergman, David J., 1994. "Nonlinear electrical response and breakdown of semicontinuous metal films," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 207(1), pages 323-328.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:207:y:1994:i:1:p:323-328
    DOI: 10.1016/0378-4371(94)90390-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0378437194903905
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/0378-4371(94)90390-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:207:y:1994:i:1:p:323-328. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.