CONDUCTION MECHANISM IN RUO2-BASED THICK-FILMS

The paper presents resistivity characteristics of RuO2-based thick res istive films (temperature and magnetic field dependences), and analyze s them from the point of view oi the possible conduction mechanism at low temperatures. It is shown that simple models based on tunnelling o f charge carriers between conductive RuO2 grains and on variable range hopping of carriers between localized impurity states in tile glass m atrix iia thermal activation do not provide a satisfactory explanation for the electrical conductivity of tile investigated thick film resis tors. me suggest a new mechanism based on tunnelling of electrons thro ugh graded barriers between conductive particles which might explain t he observed behaviour.