Critical Activation Voltage for Phonon-Mediated Field-Driven Phenomena

Critical Activation Voltage for Phonon-Mediated Field-Driven Phenomena | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Critical Activation Voltage for Phonon-Mediated Field-Driven Phenomena Ric Fulop, Neil Gershenfeld This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8803756/v2 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Abstract Field-driven phenomena, from flash sintering to electromigration, exhibit threshold fields spanning eight orders of magnitude. We show that the product of the field and the activation coherence length is a conserved critical activation voltage, Vc = E· r≈ 0.1–2.7 V, the electrical work required to resonantly couple to the phonon damping peak, closing the thermodynamic barrier for defect generation. This invariant unifies macroscopic to nanoscale thermal and transport instabilities across 17 crystal families. Physical sciences/Materials science/Condensed-matter physics/Phase transitions and critical phenomena Physical sciences/Physics/Statistical physics, thermodynamics and nonlinear dynamics/Phase transitions and critical phenomena Field driven processing Flash sintering Electromigration Electroplasticity Thin-film field-induced crystallization Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files Vcsupplementalmaterial.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8803756","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":615432140,"identity":"6df985f7-844e-42bc-bc36-0a1cad483c53","order_by":0,"name":"Ric Fulop","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAuUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACZgaGDwwFDAz8DIwNEC4RWhhnMBgwMEg2MDY2EKeFAarF4ADYGiK0mLczP2zmMbDJM752uP0BQ4V1YgMhLTKH2QyBWtKKzW4nAh12Jp2wFglmHvbHPAaHE7eBtDC2HSZKC2MzSMvm2SAt/0jRskEapKWBKC1sho1zgH6RADpsRsKxdGPCWvgPP2x4U2GTxz87/cGHDzXWsgS1wEACEkmSllEwCkbBKBgF2AAA5808sv5EMdYAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9985-9151","institution":"MIT","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ric","middleName":"","lastName":"Fulop","suffix":""},{"id":615432141,"identity":"96ad2445-9a66-4763-bbee-e2a23b4099d3","order_by":1,"name":"Neil Gershenfeld","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"MIT","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Neil","middleName":"","lastName":"Gershenfeld","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-02-06 07:11:59","currentVersionCode":2,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8803756/v2","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8803756/v2","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":106401784,"identity":"fae8b122-a5d2-4c94-a7c2-b0a5de845749","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-08 09:09:40","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":205142,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Vcsupplementalmaterial.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8803756/v2_covered_9bdbf210-7013-4fde-a38b-29a54a373028.pdf"},{"id":105949431,"identity":"8ffa5f5a-61a3-4f01-837a-3252486cff2a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-01 17:59:47","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":260255,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Vcsupplementalmaterial.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8803756/v2/062319bd35b7adff4518cd0a.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"Critical Activation Voltage for Phonon-Mediated Field-Driven Phenomena","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Field driven processing, Flash sintering, Electromigration, Electroplasticity, Thin-film field-induced crystallization","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8803756/v2","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8803756/v2","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eField-driven phenomena, from flash sintering to electromigration, exhibit threshold fields spanning eight orders of magnitude. 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