Nanoscale formation mechanism of conducting filaments in NiO thin films

We have studied the nanoscale electrical properties of NiO thin films by using conducting atomic force microscopy (CAFM) to understand the mechanism of resistance change of the NiO thin films as we changed the applied voltage. We observed that inhomogeneous conducting filaments were generated by external voltage bias; in addition, some of the inhomogeneous conducting filaments were durable while some of them were not, and they disappeared. We deduced that the resistance change of the NiO thin films was related to inhomogeneous filamentary conducting paths generated by both Ni ions in thermodynamically unstable NiO and the existence of conducting filament segments generated by high voltage bias.