2011/05/27 by Patrick Joanis, Joanis, Patrick, Monique Tie +3
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Gold and Silver Nanoparticles Synthesis and Applications #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) #Surface and Thin Film Phenomena #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1105.5647
4 pages, 4 figures, submitted for publication
arxiv created 2011/05/27 · openalex publication_date 2011/05/27 · arxiv updated 2011/05/31 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We have studied conductance (\itg) of butanedithiol-linked gold nanoparticle films across a percolation insulator-to-metal transition. As the transition proceeds, electrons become itinerant (i.e. Coulomb charging and kinetic effects are both significant), and films exhibit a previously unobserved zero-bias conductance peak (ZBCP). The peak is much more pronounced and easily observed using electromigration-induced break junction (BJ) contacts rather than macroscopic 4-probe electrodes. We attribute this ZBCP to quantum correlations amongst electrons, in view of other temperature- (\itT-) and magnetic (\itB-) dependent measurements as well as predictions of the Hubbard model and dynamic mean field theory in this transition regime. Metallic film resistances (\itR's) increase linearly with \itT, but with suggested scattering lengths that, anomalously, are shorter than inter-atomic distances. Similar so-called "bad-metallic" behaviour has been observed in several studies of correlated systems, and is still being understood. We find here that the anomalous \itR behaviours are associated with the ZBCP. This system can serve as a new test bed for studying correlated electrons and points to a nano building-block strategy for fashioning novel correlated materials.