A direct calculation of the tunnelling current: IV. Electron-phonon interaction effects

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Abstract
For pt. III see ibid, vol. 4, 2611 (1971). Electron-phonon interaction effects in tunnelling junctions are considered in the framework of the formalism proposed in Pt. I (see abstr. A52955 of 1971). This formalism is simplified and then used to study electron-phonon interaction in metal-insulator-metal junctions. The interactions inside the metallic electrodes are shown to yield a complicated mixture of dispersive and dissipative lineshapes in the second derivative d2I/dV2. Such a structure originates in a destructive interference which also leads to a strong reduction in the magnitude of the effect. On the other hand, the interactions in the insulator yield dissipative lineshapes, due to the opening of a new inelastic tunnelling channel. Such a contribution is reinforced by the absence of destructive interference inside the insulator. It is proposed that the observed structures arising from electrode phonons are due predominantly to the penetration of metallic phonons inside the insulator, rather than to selfenergies localized in the metal itself.

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