Toward theory of resistivity measurements on quasi-two-dimensional crystals

Some general aspects of the anisotropic (two-component) resistivity determination of a plane-parallel quasi-two-dimensional mini crystal are analyzed under the conditions of nonuniform current distribution. It is shown that, regardless of sample and terminals geometry, the results of two resistive measurements allow full determination of the resistivity tensor; minimal terminal configuration contains only four contact pads. Also the virtual-sink method is introduced to solve the corresponding Laplace equation, and full mathematical solution is given for the special case of parallelepiped-shaped sample with rectangular contact pads.