Unpinning of the Fermi level and tunnelling in metal oxide semiconductors

C. MALAGU, G. MARTINELLI, M.A. PONCE Y C.M. ALDAO

APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS

AIP

Año: 2008 vol. 92 p. 1 - 4

0003-6951

The widely accepted expression for conductance in polycrystalline metal oxides cannot take into account of the observed decrease in conductance of nanostructured materials with respect to their larger counterpart. We provide here an explanation for this phenomenon suggesting that tunneling through the Schottky barrier has a comparable importance to thermionic crossing in ruling the electron transport in these materials.