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Electrical conduction in layer silicates investigated by combined scanning tunnelling microscopy and atomic force microscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

H. Lindgreen
H. Lindgreen*
Affiliation:
Clay Mineralogical Laboratory, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Thoravej 8, DK-2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark
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Abstract

Layer silicates are generally assumed to be insulators, but electron transport may take place in nm thick particles. A combined scanning tunnelling-atomic force (STM-AFM) instrument using a conducting AFM tip has been constructed to investigate this conduction. Some layer silicates, e.g. micas (muscovite and biotite), are in fact semiconductors, conduction taking place through free electrons in the tetrahedral sheet (n-type semiconductivity) and probably through polaron hopping in the octahedral sheet. This implies that these minerals can be investigated by STM. Furthermore, micas show negative differential resistance (decreasing current with increasing voltage) at 2 – 5 V.

Keywords

electron transportlayer silicatessemiconductorsscanning tunnelling microscopyatomic force microscopy
Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , September 2000 , pp. 643 - 652
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2000

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