Abstract
The physical grounds of electroformation as a process in the self-formation (self-organization) of a nanometer-sized insulating gap in a conducting medium are considered; this process takes place on an open insulator surface when an electric current passes. The proposed physical concepts permit the explanation of all main features of the electroforming process and the properties of electroformed metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structures, such as N-shaped current-voltage characteristics, the bistability, the memory effect, the existence of the threshold voltage of switching from a low- to a high-conducting state, etc. The notations developed allow one to substantially formulate a concept of a new nanoelectronics device—a nano-MIM diode—with an active conducting medium, which may be a base for the nonvolatile electrically reprogrammable memory cell.
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Original Russian Text © V.M. Mordvintsev, S.E. Kudryavtsev, V.L. Levin, 2009, published in Rossiiskie nanotekhnologii, 2009, Vol. 4, Nos. 1–2.
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Mordvintsev, V.M., Kudryavtsev, S.E. & Levin, V.L. Electroforming as a process in the self-formation of conducting nanostructures for the nonvolatile electrically reprogrammable memory elements. Nanotechnol Russia 4, 121–128 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1995078009010133
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1995078009010133