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Universal Features of the Electron Transport in Tungsten–Carbon Nanocomposites

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Abstract

The wide-temperature-range (4.2–300 K) electron transport had being studied in tungsten–carbon nanocomposites in tungsten concentration interval 0.1–0.45. It is shown that electron transport in the nanocomposites possesses the features of the universality, manifested in the form of power-law dependences of the conductivity on temperature in the two characteristic temperature intervals. The critical temperature separating the intervals is about 25–30 K and has no appreciable dependence on the value of tungsten concentration in nanocomposites. The power exponents of the temperature dependences of the conductivity in both temperature intervals are the non-monotonic functions of the tungsten concentration and vary in the range 0–2 with a wide minimum at 0.2 and 0.25 of tungsten content in the high- and low-temperature intervals, respectively. The observed power-law temperature corrections to the conductivity are simulated and discussed within the effective medium approximation in the framework of the model of the inelastic tunneling of the electrons between the conducting clusters in the tungsten–carbon nanocomposites.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. L.D. Iskhakova (Fiber Optics Center of RAS) for her kind assistance in the tungsten concentration measurements, Prof. V.V. Glushkov, and Dr. A.N. Samarin (Prokhorov General Physics Institute of RAS) for valuable discussions. VVB (electron microscopy data, discussion of the results) is grateful to RSF (14-22-00093) for the financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, GPI RAS, Moscow, Russia, 119991

    A. D. Bozhko

  2. Institute for High Pressure Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, HPPI RAS, Troitsk, Moscow, Russia, 142190

    V. V. Brazhkin

  3. Moscow Power Engineering Institute, National Research University, Moscow, Russia, 111250

    M. L. Shupegin

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  1. A. D. Bozhko
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  2. V. V. Brazhkin
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Bozhko, A.D., Brazhkin, V.V. & Shupegin, M.L. Universal Features of the Electron Transport in Tungsten–Carbon Nanocomposites. J Low Temp Phys 192, 299–314 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-018-1975-3

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