title: Electrical breakdown of nanowires.
abstract: Instantaneous electrical breakdown measurements of GaN and Ag nanowires are performed by an in situ transmission electron microscopy method. Our results directly reveal the mechanism that typical thermally heated semiconductor nanowires break at the midpoint, while metallic nanowires breakdown near the two ends due to the stress induced by electromigration. The different breakdown mechanisms for the nanowires are caused by the different thermal and electrical properties of the materials.
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Center for Electron Microscopy, The State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Jiong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Hongyu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008422:Materials Testing; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D012666:Semiconductors