Quantum size effect for hopping conduction in granular metals

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Abstract
The electrical conductivity in granular metals is usually considered as a thermally activated tunneling process. The authors present here an improved calculation model, which shows that the contribution of each grain to the conduction process is not obvious. This model allows the determination of the conductivity in such systems, as a limit of the general behaviour when the dimension of the grains is very much reduced and the temperature very low. It seems that the quantum size effect is increased when the particles are embedded in solid matrix.