Thermally activated conductivity and current-voltage characteristic of dielectric phase in granular metals

Models of thermally activated linear and high-field nonlinear conductivity of a dielectric phase in granular metals (nanocomposites), i.e., aggregates of small metallic grains in a dielectric matrix, have been suggested. Given a sufficiently large spread of grain sizes, the temperature dependence of the nanocomposite conductivity should be described by a universal "power-1/2'' law: G proportional to exp[-(T-0/T)(1/2)]. An analytical expression for T-0 has been obtained. It is found that there are two regimes of nonlinear conductivity in a high electric field, namely, a low-field regime, when both the number and mobility of carriers change with the field strength, and a high-field regime, when only the mobility of carriers is variable. Analytical expressions for the nonlinear conductance in both regimes have been obtained. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S1063-7761(99)02304-5].