Conductivity size effect of polycrystalline metal nanowires

It is well known that the conductivity of metal nanowires decreases with the wire diameter. This size effect was first studied for metal thin films when the film thickness approaches the electron mean free path. Fuchs & Sondheimer (FS) pointed out that the external surface scattering of the elec...

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Main Authors: Weihuang Xue, Wenhua Gu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AIP Publishing LLC 2016-11-01
Series:AIP Advances
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4967198
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author Weihuang Xue
Wenhua Gu
author_facet Weihuang Xue
Wenhua Gu
author_sort Weihuang Xue
collection DOAJ
description It is well known that the conductivity of metal nanowires decreases with the wire diameter. This size effect was first studied for metal thin films when the film thickness approaches the electron mean free path. Fuchs & Sondheimer (FS) pointed out that the external surface scattering of the electrons contributes to the conductivity decrease. Mayadas and Shatzkes (MS) pointed out that the grain boundary scattering plays a major role for polycrystalline thin films. As is clear that nanowires are 2-d constrained instead of 1-d for thin film, so the size effect would be more eminent. However, today the mostly used physical model for the conductivity of metal nanowires is still the MS theory. This paper proposes a more complete model suitable for circular cross-section polycrystalline metal nanowires, which takes into account of background scattering, external surface scattering, as well as grain boundary scattering. Comparison with experiment data showed that our model can well explain the conductivity size effect of polycrystalline metal nanowires.
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spelling doaj.art-479b0a303dcb482e82951d04482f15362022-12-22T03:58:33ZengAIP Publishing LLCAIP Advances2158-32262016-11-01611115001115001-810.1063/1.4967198001611ADVConductivity size effect of polycrystalline metal nanowiresWeihuang Xue0Wenhua Gu1School of Optical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of ChinaSchool of Optical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of ChinaIt is well known that the conductivity of metal nanowires decreases with the wire diameter. This size effect was first studied for metal thin films when the film thickness approaches the electron mean free path. Fuchs & Sondheimer (FS) pointed out that the external surface scattering of the electrons contributes to the conductivity decrease. Mayadas and Shatzkes (MS) pointed out that the grain boundary scattering plays a major role for polycrystalline thin films. As is clear that nanowires are 2-d constrained instead of 1-d for thin film, so the size effect would be more eminent. However, today the mostly used physical model for the conductivity of metal nanowires is still the MS theory. This paper proposes a more complete model suitable for circular cross-section polycrystalline metal nanowires, which takes into account of background scattering, external surface scattering, as well as grain boundary scattering. Comparison with experiment data showed that our model can well explain the conductivity size effect of polycrystalline metal nanowires.http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4967198
spellingShingle Weihuang Xue
Wenhua Gu
Conductivity size effect of polycrystalline metal nanowires
AIP Advances
title Conductivity size effect of polycrystalline metal nanowires
title_full Conductivity size effect of polycrystalline metal nanowires
title_fullStr Conductivity size effect of polycrystalline metal nanowires
title_full_unstemmed Conductivity size effect of polycrystalline metal nanowires
title_short Conductivity size effect of polycrystalline metal nanowires
title_sort conductivity size effect of polycrystalline metal nanowires
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4967198
work_keys_str_mv AT weihuangxue conductivitysizeeffectofpolycrystallinemetalnanowires
AT wenhuagu conductivitysizeeffectofpolycrystallinemetalnanowires