Nanoscale Transformations in Metastable, Amorphous, Silicon-Rich Silica

Adnan Mehonic; Mark Buckwell; Luca Montesi; Manveer Singh Munde; David Gao; Stephen Hudziak; Richard J Chater; Sarah Fearn; David McPhail; Michel Bosman; Alexander L Shluger; Anthony J Kenyon

doi:10.1002/adma.201601208

Nanoscale Transformations in Metastable, Amorphous, Silicon-Rich Silica

Adv Mater. 2016 Sep;28(34):7486-93. doi: 10.1002/adma.201601208. Epub 2016 Jun 23.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, UCL, Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7JE, UK. a.mehonic@ee.ucl.ac.uk.
² Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, UCL, Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7JE, UK.
³ Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, 2 Fusionopolis Way, Singapore, 138634.
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy and London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK.
⁵ Department of Materials, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
⁶ Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, UCL, Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7JE, UK. t.kenyon@ee.ucl.ac.uk.

PMID: 27334656
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201601208

Abstract

Electrically biasing thin films of amorphous, substoichiometric silicon oxide drives surprisingly large structural changes, apparent as density variations, oxygen movement, and ultimately, emission of superoxide ions. Results from this fundamental study are directly relevant to materials that are increasingly used in a range of technologies, and demonstrate a surprising level of field-driven local reordering of a random oxide network.

Keywords: amorphous oxides; electrical stress; oxide nanostructure; resistive switching.