Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 25, 2026

In Situ Time-dependent Dielectric Breakdown in the Transmission Electron Microscope: A Possibility to Understand the Failure Mechanism in Microelectronic Devices
09:26

In Situ Time-dependent Dielectric Breakdown in the Transmission Electron Microscope: A Possibility to Understand the Failure Mechanism in Microelectronic Devices

Published on: June 26, 2015

Dielectric breakdown and avalanches at nonequilibrium metal-insulator transitions

Ashivni Shekhawat1, Stefanos Papanikolaou, Stefano Zapperi

  • 1LASSP, Physics Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-2501, USA.

Physical Review Letters
|January 17, 2012
PubMed

More Related Videos

Using Laser Scanning Microscopy to Determine Electromigration in Molybdenum Disilicide09:41

Using Laser Scanning Microscopy to Determine Electromigration in Molybdenum Disilicide

Published on: May 23, 2025

Quantitative Analysis of Vacuum Induction Melting by Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy03:49

Quantitative Analysis of Vacuum Induction Melting by Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

Published on: June 10, 2019

Related Concept Videos

Electrostatic Boundary Conditions in Dielectrics01:27

Electrostatic Boundary Conditions in Dielectrics

When an electric field passes from one homogeneous medium to another, crossing the boundary between the two mediums imparts a discontinuity in the electric field. This results in electrostatic boundary conditions that depend on the type of mediums the field propagates through.
Consider a case where both the mediums across a boundary are two different dielectric materials. Recall that the electric field and electric displacement are proportional and related through the material's permittivity.
Metal-Semiconductor Junctions01:24

Metal-Semiconductor Junctions

The contact of metal and semiconductor can lead to the formation of a junction with either Schottky or Ohmic behavior.
Schottky Barriers
Schottky barriers arise when a metal with a work function (Φm) contacts a semiconductor with a different work function (Φs). Initially, electrons transfer until the Fermi levels of the metal and semiconductor align at equilibrium. For instance, if Φm > Φs, the semiconductor Fermi level is higher than the metal's before contact. The semiconductor's...
Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing02:39

Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing

Heating a crystalline solid increases the average energy of its atoms, molecules, or ions, and the solid gets hotter. At some point, the added energy becomes large enough to partially overcome the forces holding the molecules or ions of the solid in their fixed positions, and the solid begins the process of transitioning to the liquid state or melting. At this point, the temperature of the solid stops rising, despite the continual input of heat, and it remains constant until all of the solid is...
Magnetostatic Boundary Conditions01:28

Magnetostatic Boundary Conditions

An electric field suffers a discontinuity at a surface charge. Similarly, a magnetic field is discontinuous at a surface current. The perpendicular component of a magnetic field is continuous across the interface of two magnetic mediums. In contrast, its parallel component, perpendicular to the current, is discontinuous by the amount equal to the product of the vacuum permeability and the surface current. Like the scalar potential in electrostatics, the vector potential is also continuous...
Dielectric Polarization in a Capacitor01:31

Dielectric Polarization in a Capacitor

The presence of a dielectric medium in a capacitor not only changes the voltage and capacitance but also affects the electric field. In general, dielectrics can be of two types: polar and nonpolar. In a polar dielectric, the positive and negative charges in the molecules are separated by a distance and hence have a permanent dipole moment. In contrast, no such charge separation exists in a nonpolar dielectric, however the nonpolar molecules get polarized in the presence of an external electric...
Electrochemical Systems01:24

Electrochemical Systems

Electrochemical systems provide a fascinating insight into the dynamic interplay of charged species within various phases. One notable example is the interaction between a membrane permeable to K⁺ ions but not to Cl⁻ ions, separating an aqueous KCl solution from pure water. As K⁺ ions diffuse through the membrane, they generate net charges on each phase, leading to a potential difference between them.Similarly, when a piece of Zn is immersed in an aqueous ZnSO₄ solution, the Zn metal, composed...