Granular systems in the Coulomb blockade regime

D. P. Arovas, F. Guinea, C. Herrero, P. San Jose

Published 2002-11-29Version 1

Disordered granular systems, at temperatures where charging effects are important, are studied, by means of an effective medium approximation. The intragrain charging energy leads to insulating behavior at low temperatures, with a well defined Coulomb gap. Non equilibrium effects can give rise to a zero temperature transition between a metallic, gapless phase, and an insulating phase.