Electrostatic field-induced surface instability

Abstract

Articles you may be interested inThermally induced nanoscale structural and morphological changes for atomic-layer-deposited Pt on SrTiO3 (001) Generic role of the anisotropic surface free energy on the morphological evolution in a strained-heteroepitaxial solid droplet on a rigid substrate Phase-field modeling of stress-induced surface instabilities in heteroepitaxial thin films J. Appl. Phys. 98, 044910 (2005);We examine the thermodynamics and evolution of the morphology of a metal surface in the presence of a large electric field. A flat surface is unstable for all finite electric fields E with a critical wavelength proportional to E −1 or E −2 at small and large fields, respectively. The instability wavelength that grows the fastest during surface diffusion-limited evolution scales in the same manner. Such instabilities are important for scanning probe microscopies and are becoming increasingly important in microelectromechanical systems applications as device dimensions are reduced.

Electric field induced surface diffusion and micro/nano-scale island growth

“…It is also interesting to examine whether the surface of a conductor can evolve even under a uniform electric field, such as that in a parallel plate capacitor. This problem was also considered by Du and Srolovitz (2004) and the results derived here are somewhat similar to their analysis. Consider the parallel plate capacitor geometry shown in Fig.…”

“…Although the above observations were accompanied by qualitative descriptions of possible surface diffusion aided by the strong electric field present between the STM tip and the sample surface, there was no attempt to develop a quantitative description of the phenomenon. Later, Du and Srolovitz (2004) studied the stability of a surface in a parallel plate capacitor in the context of how electric fields can have undesirable surface roughening effect in nano-and micro-scale contact switches in NEMS and MEMS devices. They showed that there exists a critical wavelength, above which perturbations are energetically admissible and calculated the fastest growing perturbation wavelength.…”

Colloquium: Phase transitions in polymers and liquids in electric fields

“…In a related work, Du and Srolovitz (2004) considered the stability of the metal electrodes themselves to surface modulations. Two parallel metals with potential difference V and separated by an insulator are commonly found in many situations, such as in micro-electromechanical-systems, microswitches, and close to scanning transmission microscopy tips.…”

A theoretical analysis of the breakdown of electrostrictive oxide film on metal

“…These models, however, do not include electromechanical effects. Du and Srolovitz (2004) and Song and Yang (2006) did consider how an imposed electric field could compromise the morphological stability of an oxide film, but they also did not include the effects of electrostriction. This paper investigates and demonstrates the possibility that the intimate coupling between the environment, the electric field and elasticity, changes the morphology of the oxide film in ways that can lead to dielectric breakdown of the oxide film or exposure of the substrate to the corrosive environment.…”