Resistivity scaling in metallic thin films and nanowires due to grain boundary and surface roughness scattering

- Resistivity of metallic thin films and nanowires increases when the size is reduced.
- The resistivity increase is caused by grain boundaries and rough boundary surfaces.
- The impact of electron scattering is studied without phenomenological parameters.
- Quantum mechanical aspects of confinement and scattering are taken into account.
- Nanowire surface roughness scattering can be suppressed by exploiting confinement.

A modeling approach, based on an analytical solution of the semiclassical multi-subband Boltzmann transport equation, is presented to study resistivity scaling in metallic thin films and nanowires due to grain boundary and surface roughness scattering. While taking into account the detailed statistical properties of grains, roughness and barrier material as well as the metallic band structure and quantum mechanical aspects of scattering and confinement, the model does not rely on phenomenological fitting parameters.

Graphical Abstract210