The Decay in Electrical Resistance in Evaporated Gold Films

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Abstract
The irreversible changes in electrical resistance (time-decay) of gold films evaporated at room temperature were measured as a function of time to know the mechanism of the forming process of evaporated films. An experimental formula was derived for the change in electrical resistance. For the initial portions of the decay curves, the decay ratedR/dtwas found to be proportional to (R-R∞)n, wherenwas almost independent of the evaporation rate. When the film thickness is 140 A±10 A,nis about 6.0 and it increases with increasing thickness. The mechanism of decay is understood as annihilation process of distortions generated in films during deposition. It is found that recombination theory and diffusion theory already proposed to explain the phenomenon are unsuitable to interprete the decay of the very initial stage of the film formation. It seems that much more complicated processes take place at this stage.