Abstract
The formation of nanoscale percolation paths or conducting filaments in oxide materials such as SiO2, HfO2, etc. presents both a challenge to gate oxide reliability as well as an opportunity to a next-generation resistive memory technology, as these materials have already been heavily deployed in mainstream integrated circuit manufacturing. In this paper, we present novel experimental evidence showing that electrical conduction through a nanoscale conducting filament can be disrupted upon illumination by white light. The disruption is either permanent or temporary, depending on the current which passed through the filament at the instant of its formation before the process was interrupted. The underlying mechanism is believed to involve photon-induced migration of neighboring interstitial oxygen ions, leading to their recombination with the vacancy sites which made up the conducting filament. This finding suggests possible exploitation for gate oxide reliability renewal and implementation of optical functions in SiO2 or HfO2 based devices whose functionality thus far is only limited to electrical excitation.