A “double exponential” increase in conductivity due to explosive crystallization of the amorphous layer of ultra-thin quench-condensed gold film

Abstract

A “double exponential” growth in conductivity, caused by explosive crystallization of the amorphous layer in growing ultra-thin quench-condensed gold film, is detected during in situ measurements of conductivity as a function of the nominal thickness of the condensate, in a narrow range of thicknesses of the metal precipitated onto a substrate. The subsequent behavior of the conductivity can be described by the Arrhenius law with the activation energy being equal to the Coulomb charging energy of growing metal crystallites, suggesting that their average diameter is correlated with the thickness of the precipitating metal film.