title: Nonlinear effects of electrolyte diodes and transistors in a polymer gel medium.
abstract: The polarization curve of an acid-base interface in a hydrogel medium has a diode characteristic. Two of each such electrolyte diodes can be combined to give an electrolyte transistor. When a salt is added to the alkaline or to the acidic part of a reverse biased electrolyte diode, the current response is highly nonlinear. If the salt is added to the acidic side, even bistability can be observed. This bistability can generate complex oscillations in a base-acid-base electrolyte transistor. These nonlinear effects are studied experimentally and theoretically. While the nonlinear salt effect can be explained with the Nernst-Planck equations, to understand the bistable behavior further investigations are necessary. (c) 1999 American Institute of Physics.
authors.affiliation: Center for Complex and Nonlinear Systems and the Department of Chemical Physics, Technical University of Budapest, H-1521 Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Laszlo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hegedus
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kirschner
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wittmann
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: Zoltan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Noszticzius
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Amemiya
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohmori
authors.forename: Tomohiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi