Abstract
This work presents a preliminary experimental study on the possibility to initiate growth of whiskers on the surfaces of some technologically important metals utilizing the enhanced electric field of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). The results provide evidence that a relatively high concentration of what appear to be whisker nuclei form in the region where SPPs were excited, whereas no such changes are observed on the untreated surface.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
NASA, “NASA Goddard Space Flight Center tin whisker homepage.” [Online]. Available: http://nepp.nasa.gov/whisker/failures/index.htm. [Accessed: 11-Apr-2015].
J. Brusse, “Metal Whisker Discussion (Tin and Zinc Whiskers),” 2004. [Online]. Available: http://www.calce.umd.edu/lead-free/other/BRUSSE_ACI.pdf. [Accessed: 11-Apr-2015].
V. G. Karpov, “Electrostatic Theory of Metal Whiskers,” Phys. Rev. Appl., vol. 1, no. 4, p. 044001, May 2014.
E. F. Y. Kou and T. Tamir, “Incidence angles for optimized ATR excitation of surface plasmons,” Appl. Opt., vol. 27, no. 19, pp. 4098–4103, 1988.
R. D. Olney and R. J. Romagnoli, “Optical effects of surface plasma waves with damping in metallic thin films.,” Appl. Opt., vol. 26, no. 11, pp. 2279–82, 1987.
W. L. Barnes, A. Dereux, and T. W. Ebbesen, “Surface plasmon subwavelength optics,” Nature, vol. 424, no. 6950, pp. 824–830, 2003.
D. Sarid, “Long-Range Surface-Plasma Waves on Very Thin Metal Films,” Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 47, no. 26, pp. 1927–1930, Dec. 1981.
F. Y. Kou and T. Tamir, “Range extension of surface plasmons by dielectric layers,” Opt. Lett., vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 367–369, May 1987.
V. Borra, D. Georgiev, and V. Karpov, “Fabrication of optically smooth Sn thin films ( Manuscript in preparation),” 2015.
T. Tsang, T. Srinivasanrao, and J. Fischer, “Surface-Plasmon Field-Enhanced Multiphoton Photoelectric-Emission From Metal-Films,” Phys. Rev. B, vol. 43, no. 11, pp. 8870–8878, 1991.
A. D. Rakić, A. B. Djurišić, J. M. Elazar, and M. L. Majewski, “Optical properties of metallic films for vertical-cavity optoelectronic devices,” Appl. Opt., vol. 37, no. 22, pp. 5271–5283, Aug. 1998.
E. T. A. R. A. MacRae, “Optical Properties of Vacuum-Evaporated White Tin*,” Phys. Rev., vol. 162, no. 3, pp. 615–620, 1967.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Borra, V., Georgiev, D.G. & Karpov, V.G. Cultivating Metal Whiskers by Surface Plasmon Polariton Excitation. MRS Advances 1, 805–810 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1557/adv.2016.160
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/adv.2016.160