Measurement of elasticity and conductivity of a three-dimensional percolation system

Measurements have been made of electrical conductivity and Young's modulus of a set of sintered, submicron, silver-powder beams with occupied volume fractions (f) in the range 0.1 to 0.3. The results show clear evidence for a percolation threshold at fc=0.062±{}0.01. The conductivity and elasticity critical exponents, measured in the range 0.6{≤}(f-fc)/fc{≤}4, were t=2.15±{}0.25 and {τ}=3.8±{}0.5, in agreement with recent theories and numerical simulations that show {τ}>t, 1.65 3.55 in three dimensions.