The stochastic growth of metal whiskers

The phenomenon of spontaneously growing metal whiskers (MWs) raises significant reliability concerns due to their related arcing and shorting in electric equipment. The growth kinetics of MWs remains poorly predictable. Here, we present a theory describing the earlier observed intermittent growth of MWs as caused by local energy barriers related to variations in the random electric fields generated by surface imperfections. We find the probabilistic distribution of MW stopping times, during which MW growth halts, which is important for reliability projections.