Nanoscale Transformations in Metastable, Amorphous, Silicon-Rich Silica

A Mehonic and M Buckwell and L Montesi and MS Munde and D Gao and S Hudziak and RJ Chater and S Fearn and D McPhail and M Bosman and AL Shluger and AJ Kenyon, ADVANCED MATERIALS, 28, 7486-7493 (2016).

DOI: 10.1002/adma.201601208

Electrically biasing thin films of amorphous, substoichiometric silicon oxide drives surprisingly large structural changes, apparent as density variations, oxygen movement, and ultimately, emission of superoxide ions. Results from this fundamental study are directly relevant to materials that are increasingly used in a range of technologies, and demonstrate a surprising level of field-driven local reordering of a random oxide network.

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