The features of tunneling current—voltage characteristics in a combined atomic force/scanning tunneling microscope system with quantum dots of colloidal gold

Tunneling current—voltage characteristics for growing quantum dots of colloidal gold in a combined atomic force/scanning tunneling microscope system were obtained. It was assumed that ionic conduction produces the largest contribution to the tunneling current. The tunneling current—voltage characteristics were compared qualitatively to the theoretical curve of the field dependence of the probability of 2D dissipative tunneling that was calculated taking the influence of two local phonon modes of a wide-bandgap matrix into account. It was demonstrated that the experimental and theoretical curves agree qualitatively. This suggests that the dissipative tunneling mechanism may produce a contribution to the tunneling current through a growing quantum dot under a cantilever needle. This current may be amplified in clusters with sizes of 1–5 nm in thinner films.