Re: Metal - old style Diodes

In article <em3oom0ghb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Winfield Hill wrote:

This
nonlinearity is the same effect exploited in crystal detectors,
namely a quantum-mechanical tunneling junction. For this to work
one needs two conductors in close proximity, about 0.1 to 0.3nm,
but not touching. The conductance is nonlinear, and rectifying.

Correction: The tunnel junction itself is not nonlinear. In fact a
vacuum tunneling junction between two conductors with uniform density
of states (DOS) is perfectly ohmic. It's the non-uniform electrode DOS
and/or stuff that's going on in the barrier material that make a
tunnel junction nonlinear.

--Daniel
.