Inter-cluster distance dependence of electrical conduction in nanocluster assembled films of silver: a new paradigm for design of nanostructures

The transport properties of films assembled from metal nanoclusters can be significantly different from the metals in their bulk or thin film forms due to quantum confinement effects and several competing energy and length scales. For a film composed of metal nanoclusters as its building blocks, the cluster size and the inter-cluster separation are parameters that can be varied experimentally. Here we show that the electrical conductivity of a film composed of silver nanoclusters can be changed by 9 orders of magnitude as a function of the average inter-cluster separation while keeping the average cluster size same. For inter-cluster separations of 9 nanometres or more the conductivity is insulating type whereas for lesser inter-cluster separations the conductivity behaviour is metallic type with a positive temperature coefficient of resistance. In the intermediate range between the two regions, a very interesting temperature-independent conductivity is seen. Our work provides a new paradigm for design of artificial solid structures composed of nanoclusters. The properties of these nanostructures could be tuned by varying the inter-cluster distances to get the desired properties in the same material.