Electrical breakdown measurements of semicontinuous metal films
- 31 August 1992
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 69 (9) , 1423-1426
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.69.1423
Abstract
The breakdown current of a percolating system is measured on real materials. We find that ∝, B is the weakly nonlinear response determined by third-harmonic generation. A new criterion for is suggested, defined as the current at which a hot spot reaches the melting temperature of the metallic grains, . This criterion remains valid in the presence of nonlinear effects. It is also consistent with the experimental observations: At the resistance either increases to infinity or decreases, i.e., the local geometry is changed at . Modeling the breakdown by hot spots yields the above power law with 0.5≥x≥0.36, in excellent agreement with the measured data: x=0.48 and 0.41 for Ag and Au films.
Keywords
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