Point-Contact Spectroscopy
arXiv:physics/0312016
Abstract
The history is described of how one of the most commonly used electric circuit components, an ordinary electric contact, has become a powerful tool for the physicists to study various mechanisms of electron scattering in metals. The physical principles of spectroscopy of quasi-particle excitations in metals by means of point contacts (PCs) whose dimensions range from only a few to tens of nanometers are presented in a popular form.
32 pages, 15 Figs., Translation from the Russian edition