Negative differential resistance: another banana?

TL;DR

This paper reveals that negative differential resistance (NDR) observed in various materials and even banana skins is primarily caused by water-related effects, emphasizing the importance of chemical environment considerations.

Contribution

It introduces a water-based mechanism for NDR, linking water behavior to electrical properties across diverse materials and highlighting the need to account for chemical factors.

Findings

Water-induced tunneling effect contributes to NDR.

Water decomposition and absorption influence electrical behavior.

Chemical environment significantly impacts NDR phenomena.

Abstract

Just like the artefact found in ferroelectric hysteresis loops, the nearly identical NDR effect shown in Sr3Co2Fe24O41, TiO2, Al2O3, glass and even banana skins is confirmed to be a kind of water behavior. The combination of water induced tunneling effect, water decomposition and absorption plays a crucial role in the NDR effect. The results and mechanism demonstrated here illustrate that much attention should be paid to the chemical environment when studying electrical properties of materials / devices.