Post-breakdown electrical characterization of ultrathin SiO2 films with conductive atomic force microscopy

In this work, a conductive atomic force microscope (C-AFM) has been used to study the post-breakdown (BD) behaviour of ultrathin SiO 2 films at the nanometre scale. In particular, the post-BD conduction and BD propagation have been analysed. Although the post-BD switchings in the current-voltage curves measured with C-AFM demonstrate the localized nature of the phenomenon, it has been observed that it is electrically propagated to neighbouring areas.