Electronic conduction and instabilities in thin films of amorphous silicon dioxide

The d.c. electrical properties of well annealed r.f. sputtered silicon dioxide films are reported. It has been observed that although these films have low- and high-conducting states similar to those previously reported for amorphous silicon dioxide, there are also very significant differences from previously observed data. The low- and high-conducting states have been characterized and it has been shown that both these states are stable bulk phenomena. The results are discussed in the light of previous reports and the conduction is tentatively interpreted in terms of single-carrier space-charge-limited current.