2008-02-08, Strachan, Douglas R, Davies, Peter K, Johnston, Danvers E, Bonnell, Dawn A, Guitton, Beth S, Johnson, Alan T, Datta, Sujit S

We present real-time transmission electron microscopy of nanogap formation by feedback controlled electromigration that reveals a remarkable degree of crystalline order. Crystal facets appear during feedback controlled electromigration indicating a layer-by-layer, highly reproducible electromigration process avoiding thermal runaway and melting. These measurements provide insight into the electromigration induced failure mechanism in sub-20 nm size interconnects, indicating that the current density at failure increases as the width decreases to approximately 1 nm.