REGIME OF COULOMB BLOCKADE IN GRANULAR CoFeB-SiO NANOCOMPOSITES
Oleg V. Stognei1 (

), Yu .E. Kalinin
1, A. V. Sitnikov
1,
V. Wagner
2, F. Ahlers
2, E. Jens
2
1Voronezh State Technical University, Voronezh, Russia.
2Phys. Tech. Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig, Germany.
Low temperature behavior of electrical conductivity in granular
metal-dielectric composites is still quite controversial. To clarify the
situation, temperature dependence of electrical resistivity as well as
current-voltage characteristics (I-V) of (Co41Fe39B20)ő(SiO2)100-x granular
composites with non-metal thermo-activated conductivity have been investigated
in a low temperature range.
It has been established that the resistivity behavior in the temperature range
of 2 – 50 K depends on the current flow regime. In a case of “voltage is
constant” mode the composites resistivity monotonously increases with reducing
of the temperature (down to the lowest values 2 K), as it is often observed.
If the current is kept stabilized, the monotonous resistivity rising ceases at
20 – 10 K (exact temperature value depends on the concentration of the metal
phase - x) and some sort of resistivity plateau is observed on the temperature
dependence.
The I-V curves of the composites are extremely nonlinear at low temperatures
(T<35 K). Moreover, there is some temperature range (T < 8 K) where current
does not puss the samples if the bias voltage is less than some threshold
value. This threshold value depends on the concentration of the metal phase
and decreases with the concentration. The observed zero-current regime is due
to Coulomb blockade when value of the thermal energy is not sufficient to make
the conduct electron be able to overcome the Coulomb energy barrier and tunnel
from one granule to other one. On the other hand, the electrons can get the
lacking energy if they would be excited by electric field (bias voltage). At
high applied voltage (depending on the composite concentration it varies from
0 to 20 V) the blockade is overcome and current passes through the composite.
Influence of the Coulomb blockade regime on the conductivity processes in the
composites at low temperature as well as influence of the different
measurement modes on the resistivity behavior are discussed.
The work was partly supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research
(Grant N 02-02-16102).