ELECTRICAL SWITCHING IN AGL BASED FAST-ION CONDUCTING GLASSES - POSSIBILITY FOR NEWER APPLICATIONS

A current controlled, high speed, near ideal electrical switching has been observed for the first time in microwave prepared AgI based fast ion conducting glasses. The switching is found to be memory type, which is not reverted to OFF state by the application of a resetting current pulse. The threshold fields exhibit a linear dependence on the sample thickness, with the fields decreasing with the increasing thickness. Also, the switching fields are almost independent of the temperature, clearly indicating that the memory switching in these samples is nonthermal in nature. The above results are satisfactorily explained on the basis of a chemical model. © 1995 American Institute of Physics.