Ageing and field effect studies on discontinuous silver films at near liquid nitrogen temperatures

The post deposition resistance changes in discontinuous silver films deposited in a vacuum of 2 × 10-6 torr on glass substrates maintained at near liquid nitrogen temperatures have been studied. Reduced agglomeration rates in comparison with films studied at room temperature were obtained, supporting the thermally assisted mobility coalescence model explaining the post deposition resistance increase. The non-linear I-V characteristics of one of the films followed by observations of resistance changes before and after field effect measurements on the other films have been explained as arising due to field-induced structural changes. The investigations of the variation of film resistance with temperature revealed a transition temperature. A fall in resistance with increasing temperature below the transition temperature has been explained by an increase in the number of thermally charged islands. The increase in resistance with temperature above the transition temperature is due to an increase in the thermally assisted mobility coalescence. © 1987 Chapman and Hall Ltd.