Dynamical effects and conductance asymmetry in metal-insulator-metal systems with different electrodes

Scientific paper - Original scientific paper

• Author: B. Tokić
• Author: D. Šestović
• Author: Leonardo Marušić
• Author: Marijan Šunjić
• Author's institution: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Science; (Department of Physics)
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: NATURAL SCIENCES; Physics

Abstract (english)

We investigated the electron tunneling process in a planar system consisting of two semi-infinite metal electrodes of different dielectric properties separated by a narrow vacuum gap. This system can be viewed as a model of a metal-insulator-metal structure, or even as a very rough model of scanning tunneling microscopy. We used a local limit of a self-consistent dynamic calculation to evaluate effective tunneling barriers, and discussed the influence of different screening properties of the metallic electrodes on these barriers as well as on the conductance. We found that the barriers are significantly additionally lowered due to the difference in the charge fluctuation frequencies of the electrodes, and that the conductance minimum in such systems is shifted to a nonzero value. We compared our results with some measurements of I-V characteristics and work functions and found that our calculations contribute to the understanding of the observed conductance asymmetry.

• Keywords (english): M-I-M system; plasmon; conductance
• Language: english
• Publication type: Scientific paper - Original scientific paper
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review: Peer review - international
• Publication version: Published version
• Journal title: Physical review B: Condensed matter and materials physics
• Numbering: vol. 60, no. 11, pp. 8368-8372
• p-ISSN: 1098-0121
• e-ISSN: 1550-235X
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.60.8368
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:217:932673
• Publication: 1999
• Document URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.60.8368
• Type of resource: Text
• Access conditions: Open access
• Public note: Copyright (1999) by the American Physical Society.
• Created on: 2019-10-10 09:12:06