Abstract
The appearance and evolution of surface dislocations on the surface of flame-annealed gold films due to current stressing (electromigration) are studied using scanning tunneling microscopy. Many line dislocations are present on the surface of such films, probably formed during the annealing process. Yet, at room temperature, with no current stressing, the formation of new surface dislocations is rare. When a current is applied through the film, new line dislocations often emerge. The new dislocations run predominantly in directions close to that of the current, and usually appear in correlation with the onset of the current.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | L925-L931 |
Journal | Surface Science |
Volume | 414 |
Issue number | 1-2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 11 Sep 1998 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by Intel-Israel College Relations Committee in coordination with E. Bar-Sadeh and Y. Yagil. We also thank D. Mandler and L. De-Zhong for providing the flame-annealed gold films, and Y. Goldstein for interesting discussions.
Keywords
- Dislocations
- Electromigration
- Scanning tunneling microscopy
- Surface dynamics