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

The effects of hydrogen content and cluster morphology on the electronic transport behavior of (Ni0.36Nb0.24Zr0.40)(100-x)H-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 (Ni0.36Nb0.4Zr0.40)(90)H-10 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.