Phonon-Assisted Impurity Scattering in Gold Alloys

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Abstract
Measurements of the electrical resistivity of a number of gold alloys containing Pt, Cu, and In solutes were made between 1.5 and 40°K. Below 20°K the difference between the measured resistivity and the value predicted by Matthiessen's rule is separated into two components, one associated with the "two-band effect" and one associated with phonon-assisted impurity scattering. Above 20°K, only the two-band effect seems to be important. The two-band effect is analyzed in the manner of Dugdale and Basinski; it is smaller in these gold alloys than in their copper and silver alloys. It is shown theoretically that the strength of the phonon-assisted impurity scattering depends on the departure of the conduction-electron wave functions from free-electron-like behavior and on the distortion of the impurity potential by the phonons. The absence of this scattering at high temperature is attributed to the destruction of the temporal coherence of the electron states by the electron-phonon interaction. The ideal resistivity of gold is tabulated from 10 to 500°K.

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