Aging and field-effect studies of Cu island films at near liquid-nitrogen temperatures

We report the results of the investigation carried out on the aging and field effect of discontinuous copper films deposited on glass substrates held at around 125 K. Using the scheme adopted in our earlier investigations, it was found that even at this temperature there is considerable increase in resistance. However, the agglomeration rate is much less than for films deposited at room temperature. The I-V characteristics of the films revealed an irreversible change in resistance following removal of the field. On stabilization, heating of the films revealed a decrease in resistance with temperature followed by an irreversible resistance increase beyond a transition temperature which was less than room temperature.