Experimental data concerning stress effects on grain boundary diffusion and models for grain-boundary diffusion in thin polycrystalline films, in the B- and C-regimes, under a stress field were reviewed. Numerical solutions were obtained for the conditions of a reflecting free surface and rapid surface diffusion on the sink surface for the case of a constant source. The results of the model calculations were compared with the results of an investigation of Cu grain boundary diffusion in Ni thin films and with published experimental data. The relative influence of grain boundary diffusion atomic mechanisms upon the shape of grain boundary diffusion penetration plots was considered.

Grain Boundary Diffusion in Thin Films under Stress Fields. A.S.Ostrovsky, B.S.Bokstein: Applied Surface Science, 2001, 175-176, 312-8