A theoretic and experimental investigation in stationary electric contacts

Karagiannopoulos, CG; Psomopoulos, CS; Bourkas, PD

dc.contributor.author	Karagiannopoulos, CG	en
dc.contributor.author	Psomopoulos, CS	en
dc.contributor.author	Bourkas, PD	en
dc.date.accessioned	2014-03-01T01:16:04Z
dc.date.available	2014-03-01T01:16:04Z
dc.date.issued	2001	en
dc.identifier.issn	0965-0393	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://dspace.lib.ntua.gr/xmlui/handle/123456789/13907
dc.subject.classification	Materials Science, Multidisciplinary	en
dc.subject.classification	Physics, Applied	en
dc.subject.other	Current density	en
dc.subject.other	Current voltage characteristics	en
dc.subject.other	Electron tunneling	en
dc.subject.other	Equivalent circuits	en
dc.subject.other	Interfaces (materials)	en
dc.subject.other	Microstructure	en
dc.subject.other	Quantum theory	en
dc.subject.other	Quantum mechanical tunneling	en
dc.subject.other	Stationary electric contacts	en
dc.subject.other	Electric contacts	en
dc.title	A theoretic and experimental investigation in stationary electric contacts	en
heal.type	journalArticle	en
heal.identifier.primary	10.1088/0965-0393/9/3/305	en
heal.identifier.secondary	http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0965-0393/9/3/305	en
heal.language	English	en
heal.publicationDate	2001	en
heal.abstract	Stationary contacts of practical applications under nominal current operation may exhibit nonlinear behaviour. This may be attributed to the microstructures metal-isolator-metal, metal-oxide-metal and metal-gas-metal which are formed on the apparent contacting area, as oxides and other chemical compounds create interfacial layers. Work function changes of the contacting metals can modulate the effective barrier height and width, resulting in a significant change of the crossing resistance in contacts, even during a time interval of the period. Nonlinear behaviour is developed beyond a threshold field value determinated by the voltage drop at the contact. According to the experimental results it becomes evident that at the stage of moderate degradation, tunnelling occurs. An equivalent circuit is proposed which is valid for stationary contacts of practical applications. The theoretic investigation is based upon commonly accepted relations concerning quantum mechanical tunnelling. Between the experimental results and the theoretical ones a satisfactory agreement was found.	en
heal.publisher	IOP PUBLISHING LTD	en
heal.journalName	Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1088/0965-0393/9/3/305	en
dc.identifier.isi	ISI:000168738700005	en
dc.identifier.volume	9	en
dc.identifier.issue	3	en
dc.identifier.spage	181	en
dc.identifier.epage	192	en