Multiple percolation tunneling staircase in metal-semiconductor nanoparticle composites

Multiple percolation transitions are observed in a binary system of RuO2-CaCu3Ti4O12 metal-semiconductor nanoparticle composites near percolation thresholds. Apart from a classical percolation transition, associated with the appearance of a continuous conductance path through RuO2 metal oxide nanoparticles, at least two additional tunneling percolation transitions are detected in this composite system. Such behavior is consistent with the recently emerged picture of a quantum conductivity staircase, which predicts several percolation tunneling thresholds in a system with a hierarchy of local tunneling conductance, due to various degrees of proximity of adjacent conducting particles distributed in an insulating matrix. Here, we investigate a different type of percolation tunneling staircase, associated with a more complex conductive and insulating particle microstructure of two types of non-spherical constituents. As tunneling is strongly temperature dependent, we use variable temperature measurements to emphasize the hierarchical nature of consecutive tunneling transitions. The critical exponents corresponding to specific tunneling percolation thresholds are found to be nonuniversal and temperature dependent.