Nucleation and growth of metal whiskers
arXiv:1309.3822
Abstract
The existence of metal whiskers is attributed to the energy gain due to electrostatic polarization of needle shaped metal filaments in the electric field induced by surface imperfections: contaminations, oxide states, etc. A proposed theory provides closed form expressions for the whisker nucleation and growth rates, explains the range of whisker parameters and effects of external biasing. It predicts a well controlled whisker growth on any metal surface via generating surface plasmon polariton excitations.
arXiv comment6 pages, 5 figures