TY - JOUR
T1 - The crossover from two dimensions to one dimension in granular electronic materials
AU - Xu, Ke
AU - Qin, Lidong
AU - Heath, James R.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Peigen Cao and Yue Zou (Caltech) for helpful discussions and Xingchen Ye and C. B. Murray (University of Pennsylvania) for providing the gold quantum dots. This work was supported by the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the MARCO Center for Advanced Materials and Devices.
PY - 2009/6
Y1 - 2009/6
N2 - Granular conductors are solids comprising densely packed nanoparticles, and have electrical properties that are determined by the size, composition and packing of the composite nanoparticles. The ability to control these properties in two- and three-dimensional granular conductors has made such systems appropriate for use as prototypes for investigating new physics. However, the fabrication of strictly one-dimensional granular conductors remains challenging. Here, we describe a method for the assembly of nanoparticles into granular solids that can be tuned continuously from two to one dimension, and establish how electron transport evolves between these limits. We find that the energy barriers to transport increase in the one-dimensional limit, in both the variable-range-hopping (low-voltage) and sequential-tunnelling (high-voltage) regimes. Furthermore, in the sequential-tunnelling regime we find an unexpected relationship between the temperature and the voltage at which the conductance becomes appreciable a relationship that appears peculiar to one-dimensional systems. These results are explained by extrapolating existing granular conductor theories to one dimension.
AB - Granular conductors are solids comprising densely packed nanoparticles, and have electrical properties that are determined by the size, composition and packing of the composite nanoparticles. The ability to control these properties in two- and three-dimensional granular conductors has made such systems appropriate for use as prototypes for investigating new physics. However, the fabrication of strictly one-dimensional granular conductors remains challenging. Here, we describe a method for the assembly of nanoparticles into granular solids that can be tuned continuously from two to one dimension, and establish how electron transport evolves between these limits. We find that the energy barriers to transport increase in the one-dimensional limit, in both the variable-range-hopping (low-voltage) and sequential-tunnelling (high-voltage) regimes. Furthermore, in the sequential-tunnelling regime we find an unexpected relationship between the temperature and the voltage at which the conductance becomes appreciable a relationship that appears peculiar to one-dimensional systems. These results are explained by extrapolating existing granular conductor theories to one dimension.
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U2 - 10.1038/nnano.2009.81
DO - 10.1038/nnano.2009.81
M3 - Article
C2 - 19498398
AN - SCOPUS:67651121769
SN - 1748-3387
VL - 4
SP - 368
EP - 372
JO - Nature Nanotechnology
JF - Nature Nanotechnology
IS - 6
ER -