TIME-DEPENDENCE OF CIRCULATING AND EMISSION CURRENTS IN EVAPORATED THIN-FILM SANDWICH STRUCTURES OF AU-SIOX-AU

The dependence of the circulating current (Ic) and emission current (Ie) in electroformed AuSiOxAu sandwich structures are investigated for time periods of up to 50 hours. It is observed that increases in Ic occur with time, but that an eventual decrease is only observed when the applied voltage Ub is set at Um (the voltage corresponding to the maximum in the n‐type negative resistance IcUb characteristic), and is not observed during the period of test if Ub is set at Uu (the value corresponding to the current minimum in the IcUb characteristic). Ie is found to fall rapidly immediately after the forming process. The results are qualitatively explained in terms of the filamentary model of electroforming. Comparison of these results with earlier results on ZnS and CdS, reveals significant differences. However these differences are accountable in terms of the filamentary model if differences in the rates of filament establishment and permanent filament destruction are taken into account. Copyright © 1979 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA