Investigation of the temperature dependence in Black's equation using microscopic electromigration modeling

The long-standing speculation regarding an additional temperature dependenc e in Black's equation is addressed. Under the premise that the activation e nergy measured using Black's equation, E-a, should be equal to the energy b arrier for atomic hopping, we provide evidence for an additional T-2 depend ence of the failure time. Microscopic modeling provides an explicit connect ion between the macroscopic model behavior and the microscopic parameters o f the model. These results may provide a reliable method for measuring acti vation energies for self-diffusion in pure metals. (C) 1999 American Instit ute of Physics. [S0021- 8979(99)03019-4].