The importance of geometry, field, and temperature in tunneling and rectification behavior of point contact junctions of identical metals

This letter presents new results on the tunneling and rectification characteristics of metal-whisker point-contact diodes. The model adopted here includes two new important effects, namely, the actual geometrical asymmetry of the electrodes and a temperature differential between tip and base. Calculations, for a point-contact junction of identical metals, confirm the feasibility of a rectification mechanism based solely on the geometrical asymmetry of the tip and base.