Summary: | In this thesis, the superconductive and superresistive properties of thin percolating films of lead nanoclusters are presented. The samples were created by depositing clusters from an inert gas aggregation cluster source onto substrates held at either room temperature or 10K.
Observations of the characteristic behaviours of the samples were made through R(T ) and V (I) measurements. Several interesting features were observed - smooth and discrete steps in the R(I) curves, hysteresis between increasing and decreasing bias currents, and non-zero resistances at superconducting temperatures. Explanations are proposed in terms of theoretical models of several phenomena - phase slips, phase slip centres and hotspots - which have seen little prior application to percolating systems in literature.
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