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Microscopic Driving Forces For Electromigration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Richard S. Sorbello*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201
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Abstract

Electromigration in metals is due to microscopic forces acting on mobile defects. These microscopic forces arise from the local electric field that accompanies electron transport, and the resulting defect migration is a consequence of the dynamic response of the defect to this local field. Theoretical results are given for the local electric field and the electromigration driving force on impurities in bulk systems and in metallic microstructures where surfaces, grain boundaries and dislocations play an important role. Extensions of the theory are described for mesoscopic systems, and local heating is shown to be an important effect as the size of the system becomes smaller and the electron current is larger.

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Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1996

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