  The phenomenon of spontaneously growing metal whiskers (MW) raises
significant reliability concerns due to its related arcing and shorting in
electric equipment. The growth kinetics of MW remains poorly predictable. Here
we present a theory describing the earlier observed intermittent growth of MW
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.
