We report on growth of tin (Sn) metal whiskers that is significantly accelerated under gamma-ray irradiation. The studied Sn thin film, evaporated on glass substrate, was subjected to a total of ~60 hours of irradiation over the course of 30 days. The irradiated sample demonstrated the enhanced development, in both whisker densities and lengths, resulting in an acceleration factor of ~50. This makes gamma-ray irradiation a candidate tool for accelerated testing of whisker propensity. We attribute the observed enhancement to electrostatic fields created by charged defects in the glass substrate under ionizing radiation of gamma-rays.
@article{arxiv.1705.10911,
title = {Whisker growth on Sn thin film accelerated under gamma-ray irradiation},
author = {Morgan Killefer and Vamsi Borra and Ahmed Al-Bayati and Daniel G. Georgiev and Victor G. Karpov and I. Eshmael Parsai and Diana Shvydka},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1705.10911},
year = {2017}
}