Landauer fields in electron transport and electromigration

Landauer's classic 1957 paper on electron transport in the presence of localized scatterers has provided a powerful approach for analysing the local transport field and the driving force for electromigration in metals. This approach leads to local fields which are associated with residual resistivity dipoles and with carrier density modulation, and these Landauer fields contribute to the electromigration driving force. The nature of these fields and their role in electromigration are critically examined and comparisons are made with the results of more elaborate quantum-mechanical theories. (C) 1998 Academic Press Limited.