Conductivity switching of labyrinth metal films at the percolation threshold

Abstract

Electrical properties of silver, gold and copper films at the percolation threshold were investigated experimentally. A convenient method to obtain films at the percolation threshold that consists of two phases: deposition of metal in vacuum on a dielectric substrate and subsequent thermal annealing has been developed. The metallic films produced in this way exist in two different states: a low-conductivity state and a high-conductivity state. The films can be switched between these states by the applied voltage with hysteresis of current-voltage characteristic curves. The conductivity difference between the states reaches seven orders of magnitude. The switching threshold voltage depends on the annealing time. The switching times differ considerably for different metals. They were 200 ns for silver, 2 s for gold, and 60 s for copper. A plausible explanation of the switching mechanism based on the voltage induced fine mechanical deformations is suggested and discussed.