Eur. Phys. J. D (2013) 67: 40
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2012-30484-6

Regular Article

Effect of hydrogen and cluster morphology on the electronic behavior of Ni-Nb-Zr-H glassy alloys with subnanometer-sized icosahedral Zr₅Ni₅Nb₅ clusters^*

¹ Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, 980-8577 Sendai, Japan
² Research Institute for Electromagnetic Materials, 982-0807 Sendai, Japan
³ Institute for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Waseda University, Waseda Tsurumaki, Shinjuku, 162-0041 Tokyo, Japan

^a e-mail: fukuhara@cd.wakwak.com

Received: 2 August 2012
Received in final form: 20 December 2012
Published online: 7 March 2013

Abstract

The effects of hydrogen content and cluster morphology on the electronic transport behavior of (Ni_0.36Nb_0.24Zr_0.40)_100−xH_x (0 < x < 20) glassy alloys containing distorted nanostructural icosahedral Zr₅Nb₅Ni₃ clusters have been studied. When the hydrogen content is less than 7 at%, the hydrogen atom is localized between Ni atoms of neighboring distorted icosahedral Zr₅Ni₅Nb₃ clusters. The I_d-V_g-B characteristics of the (Ni_0.36Nb_0.4Zr_0.40)₉₀H₁₀ glassy alloy field-effect transistor (GAFET) showed room-temperature three-dimensional Coulomb oscillation and the Fano effect, which arises from interference of electrons traveling through two different cluster configurations, namely a localized discrete state inside the quantum dot and a continuum in the arm.