Imaging Soft and Hard Dielectric Breakdown in Resistive Switching

Despite DB’s overwhelming importance in modern computing hardware, previously it has not been possible to visualize the microscopic physics of DB with good contrast in an oxide film. Under ideal imaging conditions, standard microscopy techniques can localize individual atoms, but they cannot distinguish an insulator from a conductor. And DB has much in common with doping a semiconductor: a tiny concentration change produces a conductivity change that is millions of times larger.