Electron glass effects in amorphous NbSi films

Julien Delahaye (1) , T Grenet (1) , Claire A Marrache-Kikuchi (2) , Vincent Humbert (2) , Laurent Bergé (2) , Louis Dumoulin (2)

1 NEEL - MagSup - Magnétisme et Supraconductivité
2 UP11 - Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11

We report on non equilibrium field effect in insulating amorphous NbSi thin films having different Nb contents and thicknesses. The hallmark of an electron glass, namely the logarithmic growth of a memory dip in conductance versus gate voltage curves, is observed in all the films after a cooling from room temperature to 4.2 K. A very rich phenomenology is demonstrated. While the memory dip width is found to strongly vary with the film parameters, as was also observed in amorphous indium oxide films, screening lengths and temperature dependence of the dynamics are closer to what is observed in granular Al films. Our results demonstrate that the differentiation between continuous and discontinuous systems is not relevant to understand the discrepancies reported between various systems in the electron glass features. We suggest instead that they are not of fundamental nature and stem from differences in the protocols used and in the electrical inhomogeneity length scales within each material.

Domaines: Physique [physics]

Julien Delahaye, T Grenet, Claire A Marrache-Kikuchi, Vincent Humbert, Laurent Bergé, et al.. Electron glass effects in amorphous NbSi films. SciPost Physics, 2020, 8 (4), pp.056. ⟨10.21468/SciPostPhys.8.4.056⟩. ⟨hal-02945691⟩