Coulomb Suppression of Tunneling Rate from Small Metal Particles

Abstract

Ac measurements on a "tunnel capacitor," in which small metal particles make tunnel junctions with one of the capacitor plates, reveal information about the electron tunneling process at the junctions. A simple zero-temperature model for the process is presented for the regime in which the Coulomb charging energy suppresses the conductance of the junctions. The prediction of the model that the capacitance and dissipation constant of the structure should scale as (frequency)/(applied ac voltage) is confirmed by the experimental results.