Impact of defects on electrical connectivity of monolayer of ideally aligned rods

The processes of formation of electrically conductive films filled by aligned elongated nanoparticles, i.e. nanotubes, nanowires or fibers attract great attention in nanotecnological applications. The alignment can be controlled by external electric fields, evaporation-driven self-assembly and assisted by different other techniques. This work studies the impact of defects on electrical connectivity of ideally aligned monolayer of rods (k-mers). By means of Monte Carlo simulation the problem of percolation for conductive rods on a discrete insulating substrate (square lattice) is analyzed. The aspect ratio of the particles changes within the interval 1-64, the insulating defects were distributed both on the lattice and on the particles. We found that even a very small amount of the insulating defects on the particles can destroy the electrical connectivity. The critical concentration of the defects decreases as the aspect ratio of the particles increases.