Unveiling single-electron tunneling in nanogranular ultrathin films for sensor applications via hyperspectral conductive AFM

Fecha

2025-03-01

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Elsevier

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Resumen

This study maps the electrical behavior across a 7 × 7 μm2 nanogranular ultrathin Pd-ZrO2 film, revealing nonlinear I-V characteristics indicative of single-electron tunneling. Following the Coulomb blockade power law I ∼ (V − Vt)ξ with a scaling exponent ξ ≈ 1.2, these characteristics appear above the threshold voltage Vt. By modeling the nanogranular structure as a 1D array of multitunnel junctions, we demonstrate a linear relationship between Vt and tunnel channel length, allowing for a better understanding of nanoscale electrical properties and supporting the development of sensitive sensors

Descripción

We would like to thank Dr M. Febvre (Bruker) for his support with the sample measurements. M.D. acknowledged the support by the Spanish “Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades” under project EQC2018-004704-P

Citación

Hicham Bakkali, Manuel Dominguez, Unveiling single-electron tunneling in nanogranular ultrathin films for sensor applications via hyperspectral conductive AFM, Materials Letters, Volume 382, 2025, 137932, ISSN 0167-577X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2024.137932
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