Effect of hydrogen on electromigration and 1/f noise in gold films

The 1/f noise of polycrystalline gold films (5 μm wide and 0.5 μm thick) was found to decrease in the presence of hydrogen, to a level comparable with that in a single-crystal gold film. Additionally, hydrogen was found to segregate to the metal-substrate interface. On the basis of these results and recent evidence in the literature, we propose that hydrogen interacting with interface defects is responsible for both the observed 1/f noise decrease and the previously reported electromigration enhancements.