Surface profile gradient in amorphous Ta<inf>2</inf>O<inf>5</inf> semi conductive layers regulates nanoscale electric current stability

Abstract

© 2016 The Author(s)A link between the morphological characteristics and the electric properties of amorphous layers is established by means of atomic, conductive, electrostatic force and thermal scanning microscopy. Using amorphous Ta2O5 (a-Ta2O5) semiconductive layer, it is found that surface profile gradients (morphological gradient), are highly correlated to both the electron energy gradient of trapped electrons in interactive Coulombic sites and the thermal gradient along conductive paths and thus thermal and electric properties are correlated with surface morphology at the nanoscale. Furthermore, morphological and electron energy gradients along opposite conductive paths of electrons intrinsically impose a current stability anisotropy. For either long conductive paths (L > 1 μm) or along symmetric nanodomains, current stability for both positive and negative currents i is demonstrated. On the contrary, for short conductive paths along non-symmetric nanodomains, the set of independent variables (L, i) is spanned by two current stability/intability loci. One locus specifies a stable state for negative currents, while the other locus also describes a stable state for positive currents.