Understanding sub-20 nm breakdown behavior of liquid dielectrics

Nanoscale confinement of dielectric molecules is expected to influence their breakdown mechanism in applications such as nanoprobe based machining, molecular electronics, and other related technologies. This Letter presents the first experimental study of the breakdown of nonpolar, nonthiolated liqu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 99; no. 1; p. 017601
Main Authors Virwani, Kumar R, Malshe, Ajay P, Rajurkar, Kamlakar P
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 06.07.2007
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Summary:Nanoscale confinement of dielectric molecules is expected to influence their breakdown mechanism in applications such as nanoprobe based machining, molecular electronics, and other related technologies. This Letter presents the first experimental study of the breakdown of nonpolar, nonthiolated liquid dielectrics in the nanometer regime and develops a field emission assisted avalanche based approach to model such behavior. The studies show that dielectric breakdown in the sub-20 nm regime is independent of the cathode materials and is dominated by the electron emission and atomic cluster migration due to the "sub-20 nm scale confinement of the liquid dielectric."
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.017601