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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
A microscopic nucleation model for electromigration is proposed. The solution to the master equations for site occupancy produces a variable current exponent with 1 < n < 2. These results disprove previous claims that n = 2 in nucleation models. We also address the long-standing speculation regarding an additional temperature dependence in Black's equation. Under the premise that the activation energy in Black's equation, Ea, should be equal to the energy barrier for atomic hopping, we provide evidence for an additional T2 dependence of the failure time. Microscopic modeling provides an explicit connection between the macroscopic model behavior and the microscopic parameters of the model. A continuum treatment of our model is derived and compared with standard continuum treatments.