Nonlinear conductivity of a 3D lattice of GaAs clusters in opal
Bogomolov V. N., Ktitorov S. A. , Kurdyukov D. A., Prokof'ev A. V. , Samoilovich S. M., Smirnov D. V.
A 3D lattice of GaAs clusters ( — 500 A) in an opal matrix has been synthesized. The current-voltage characteristic of the system has regularly spaced slope changes which are the boundaries between essentially straight regions. These features of the current-voltage characteristic can be interpreted as resulting from the successive opening of various inelastic channels, accompanied by the emission of optical phonons whose energy increases in proportion to the square of the number of the branch. The structure can be thought of as a 3D lattice of nanostructures: tunnel junctions formed by virtue of the appearance of barriers between clusters (a 3D nonlinear medium). With a further increase in the voltage, there is a transition to a regime of a current limited by space charge concentrated near discontinuities in regions of the Si02 matrix. © 7995 American Institute of Physics.