Electrical forming in and electron emission from thin film aluminium-borosilicate glass-aluminium sandwiches

Some electrical conduction properties of thin co-evaporated films of SiOx(70%)-B2O3 (30%) are described and a region of differential negative resistance in the current-voltage characteristic is observed for films of thickness approximately 3 × 10−5 cm. The films, deposited between aluminium electrodes, show evidence of electroforming and of electron emission into a vacuum when a bias voltage is applied. At voltages of order 30 V at which the negative resistance occurs, electron emission into a vacuum increases very rapidly with voltage. The emission current density is of order 10−5 Acm−2 and since the circulating current through the sandwich is lower than in similar films of SiO, the transmission efficiency is high.