Fig. 3.

Simulated conductance evolution of an Ag nanowire network (NWN). a The same conductance versus current curve shown in Fig. 2 for the Ag NWN template depicted in the Supplementary Figure 7. The junction characteristics are set at $A_{\mathrm{j}}=0.05$ and ${\alpha }_{\mathrm{j}}=1.1$. The symbols mark points in the curves in which current colour maps were taken. b–e Current colour maps calculated over each wire segment (I_s) of the Ag NWN. Snapshots were taken for four sourced current values specified on the top of each current map and distinguished by the symbols: square (transient growth), star (power-law), triangle and circle (both set in the post-power-law regime). In particular, the post-power-law state at $I=2.25$ u.c. is located at the first conductance plateau, ${\Gamma }_{\mathrm{p}}={\Gamma }_0∕4$. Animations revealing the complete evolution of the network in response to the current source, junction optimization of the top-three paths of least-resistance, and current-segment maps are provided in the supplemental material (cf. Supplementary Note 3 and Supplementary Figure 9 for animation description)