Electromigration induced dynamics of surface dislocations and atomic steps

Abstract

Electromigration induced dynamics of surface dislocations in flame annealed gold films is studied using scanning tunneling microscopy. The emergence of new dislocations appears to be strongly correlated with the onset of current stressing, and their direction is correlated with that of the current. The emergence rate decreases with time elapsed from flame annealing. We also investigate the time evolution of dislocations, which, in most cases, are found to be more robust against electromigration as compared to the normal atomic steps.