An Investigation of Electric Field Induced Surface Diffusion and Micro/Nano Scale Island Growth: Experiments and Modeling Gill, Vinaypreet S. creator 2008 xvi, 104 p. born digital Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Brown University (2009) Guduru, Pradeep director Bower, Allan reader Sheldon, Brian reader Brown University. Division of Engineering. Mechanics of Solids sponsor theses An experimental study of electric field induced surface diffusion is presented. A FEM analysis and a stability analysis of conducting surfaces subjected to a normal uniform electric field shows that sufficiently strong electric field can destabilize a flat surface. Further, electric field gradients such as those under a sharp electrode or the fringe field in a capacitor can drive surface diffusion, leading to nano-scale and micro-scale surface feature growth. Experiments are conducted on gold surfaces at elevated temperatures around 275 oC, subjected to electric fields of the order of 108-109 V/m. Growth of islands as ridges was observed, the height of which was around 100-200nm. The experiments are carried out with electrode width ranging from 100 microns to 1.5 ?m. The two bands of islands growing under the edge of electrodes start to merge into a single band at smaller electrode width. A description of the initial surface normal velocity is developed by using the Maxwell-Rowgoski solution for the fringe field at the edge of a parallel plate capacitor. A FEM analysis was also carried out which shows the instability of a flat surface subjected to a normal electric field. The FEM results show growth of islands in the fringe field regions. The analysis also shows the transition from two separate islands under the two edges to a single island as the electrode width is decreased. Surface Diffusion Surface instability Island growth Guided assembly. Electric fields RPB 20091218 engEnglish10.7301/Z0TH8JZWIn CopyrightCollection is open for research.dissertations