Surface morphological response of crystalline solids to mechanical stresses and electric fields

Abstract Surface morphological evolution under the action of external fields is a fascinating topic that has attracted considerable attention within the surface science community over the past two decades. In addition to the interest in a fundamental understanding of field-induced nonlinear response and stability of surface morphology, the problem has been technologically significant in various engineering applications such as microelectronics and nanofabrication. In this report, we review theoretical progress in modeling the surface morphological response of stressed elastic solids under conditions that promote surface diffusion and of electrically conducting solids under surface electromigration conditions. A self-consistent model of surface transport and morphological evolution is presented that has provided the basis for the theoretical and computational work that is reviewed. According to this model, the surface morphological response of electrically conducting elastic solids to the simultaneous action of mechanical stresses and electric fields is analyzed. Emphasis is placed on metallic surfaces, including surfaces of voids in metallic thin films. Surfaces of stressed elastic solids are known to undergo morphological instabilities, such as the Asaro–Tiller or Grinfeld (ATG) instability that leads to emanation of crack-like features from the surface and their fast propagation into the bulk of the solid material. This instability is analyzed theoretically, simulated numerically, and compared with experimental measurements. The surface morphological evolution of electrically conducting, single-crystalline, stressed elastic solids under surface electromigration conditions is also examined. We demonstrate that, through surface electromigration, a properly applied and sufficiently strong electric field can stabilize the surface morphology of the stressed solid against both crack-like ATG instabilities and newly discovered secondary rippling instabilities; the effects of important parameters, such as surface crystallographic orientation, on the surface morphological response to the simultaneous action of an electric field and mechanical stress also are reviewed. In addition, electromigration-driven surface morphological response is analyzed systematically, focusing on the current-driven surface morphological evolution of voids in metallic thin films; this analysis has been motivated largely by the crucial role of void dynamics in determining the reliability of metallic interconnects in integrated circuits and has led to the interpretation of a large body of experimental observations and measurements. The electromigration-driven translational motion of morphologically stable voids, effects of current-driven void dynamics on the evolution of the electrical resistance of metallic thin films, and current-driven void–void interactions also are reviewed. Furthermore, theoretical studies are reviewed that demonstrated very interesting current-driven nonlinear void dynamics in stressed metallic thin films, including the inhibition of electromigration-induced instabilities due to the action of biaxial tensile stress, and stress effects on the electromigration-driven translational motion of morphologically stable voids. Complex, oscillatory surface states under surface electromigration conditions have been observed in numerical studies. In this report, emphasis is placed on void surfaces in metallic thin films, for which stable time-periodic states have been demonstrated. It is shown that increasing parameters such as the electric-field strength or the void size past certain critical values leads to morphological transitions from steady to time-periodic states; the latter states are characterized by wave propagation on the surface of a void that migrates along the metallic film at constant speed. The transition onset corresponds to a Hopf bifurcation that may be either supercritical or subcritical, depending on the symmetry of the surface diffusional anisotropy as determined by the crystallographic orientation of the film plane. It is also shown that, in the case where the Hopf bifurcation is subcritical, the simultaneous action of mechanical stress leads the current-driven void morphological response to the stabilization of chaotic attractors; in such cases, as the applied stress level increases, the void dynamics is set on a route to chaos through a sequence of period-doubling bifurcations. The observation of current-driven chaotic dynamics in homoepitaxial islands also is discussed.