Model of Anisotropic Electrical Resistivity in Rough Thin Films

In this work a new model of electrical resistivity is proposed in order to study the relationship between surface roughness geometry and thin films resistivity. The model is based on the numerical dynamic averaging of electron mean free path over whole simulated structure of rough film. For current-in-plane configuration the resistivity increases with decreasing film thickness faster than for current-perpendicular-to-plane one. Our simulations showed that big roughness depth and fine in-plane spatial period of roughness are crucial factors increasing the resistivity of ultrathin metallic layers.