Resonance tunneling spectroscopy of heteropoly compounds

The electron tunneling spectra of phosphomolybdic and phosphomolybdovanadic acids have been measured using a scanning tunneling microscope. A new mechanism of negative differential resistance (NDR) formation in tunneling nanocontacts is established, which is general for all systems featuring the Wannier-Stark localization effect. A two-center inelastic resonance tunneling model is constructed, which allows the values of both electron and vibrational energy parameters to be determined from the measured spectra.