High field electrical behaviour in lithium-phospho-vanadate glass system

The high field electrical switching behaviour of lithium–phospho–vanadate glasses has been studied by determining the current–voltage characteristics. The investigated glasses exhibit temperature, thickness and composition dependent trends. At low current, the I–V characteristics obey Ohm’s law followed by a negative resistance region where the bulk behaviour dominates and at higher values of current the sample goes to a low resistance state. The studied glasses exhibit memory type switching. It is suggested that electrical switching is due to the formation of conducting channels that are due to electronic origin while thermal effects dominate once the channels are formed resulting in crystallization.