Nanostructure evolution and electromigration on silicon: Experimental application of length-scaling predictions

Abstract

As the size-scale of practical devices shrinks into the sub-micron regime, the atomic characteristics of the component materials are increasingly likely to manifest themselves in the fabrication, properties and stability of the devices. Predicting and controlling this behavior is a challenging problem in statistical mechanics, which can be approached via a length-scaling approach called the continuum step model. The successful application of this model to developing and analyzing experiments on surface mass transport on Si will be presented. The relationship between equilibrium step fluctuations and large scale mass transport on Si surfaces has demonstrated in quantitative measurements on the formation and decay of metastable structures. The use of this approach to determine the physical mechanisms underlying the spontaneous formation of metastable structures under a driving force induces by bulk electrical current, e.g. a surface electromigration effect, will be reviewed.