DC electrical degradation as a form of dielectric and resistance breakdown is a common phenomenon in thin-film devices including resistance-switching memory. To obtain design data and to probe the degradation mechanism, highly accelerated lifetime tests (HALT) are often conducted at higher temperatures with thicker samples. While the mechanism is well established in semiconducting oxides such as perovskite titanates, it is not in stabilized zirconia and other fast oxygen-ion conductors that have little electronic conductivity. Here we model the mechanism by an oxygen-driven, transport-limited, metal-insulator transition, which finds support in rich experimental observations - including in situ videos and variable temperature studies - of yttria-stabilized zirconia. They are contrasted with the findings in semiconducting titanates and resistance memory, and provide new insight into ceramic processing with extremely rapid heating and cooling such as flash sintering and melt processing.

中文翻译：

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YSZ 的直流电退化：快速离子传导绝缘体的电压控制电金属化

作为介电和电阻击穿形式的直流电退化是包括电阻开关存储器在内的薄膜器件中的常见现象。为了获得设计数据并探索降解机制，通常在较高温度下使用较厚的样品进行高度加速寿命测试 (HALT)。虽然该机制在半导体氧化物（如钙钛矿钛酸盐）中已经确立，但在稳定的氧化锆和其他电子传导性很小的快速氧离子导体中却没有。在这里，我们通过氧驱动、传输受限、金属-绝缘体转变对机制进行建模，这在丰富的实验观察中找到了支持 - 包括原位视频和可变温度研究 - 氧化钇稳定的氧化锆。