Low-temperature DC carrier transport in (Co0.45Fe0.45Zr0.10)x(Al2O3)1-x nanocomposites sputtered in mixed argon-oxygen atmosphere

Abstract

This paper studies the temperature dependences (2 < T < 300 K) of the DC conductivity for the (Co0:45Fe0:45Zr0:10)x(Al2O3)1􀀀x nanocomposites (30 < x < 65 at.%) sputtered in Ar + O2 atmosphere. It is shown that at temperatures lower than 100-150 K dependences of DC conductance on temperature for all the studied samples are due to the Shklovski-Efros variable range hopping mechanism. It was also observed that conductivity dependences can be attributed to the formation of FeCo-based oxide "shells" around metallic alloy nanoparticles due to incorporation of oxygen in the vacuum chamber during the deposition procedure.