Break-up phenomena of liquid metal thin film induced by high electric current

TL;DR

This paper investigates the failure mechanisms of liquid metal thin films under high electrical currents, revealing that electromigration causes film break-up, which poses challenges for future liquid metal electronic applications.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of electromigration-induced break-up phenomena in liquid metal thin films at room temperature.

Findings

Liquid metal thin films break up at a critical current density.

Electromigration is identified as the primary cause of break-up.

This phenomenon presents a major challenge for liquid metal electronics applications.

Abstract

The room temperature liquid metal related electronics has been found important in a wide variety of emerging areas over the past few years. However, its failure features under high electrical current densities are not clear until now. Here we show that a liquid metal thin film would break-up as the applied current increases to a critical magnitude. The break-up phenomenon is attributed to be caused by the so-called electromigration effect. This problem could be one of the major hurdles that must be tackled with caution in the research and application of future liquid metal film electronics.