Electrical Conductivity of Thin Films of Copper-Nickel Alloys

This paper presents the results of a study of the electrical conductivity of structurally continuous nanocrystalline films of CuNi alloys in a wide range of thicknesses and component concentrations. Alloy films with thicknesses of 50-200 nm were separated from simultaneous separate evaporation of components (copper and nickel) in a vacuum of 10 – 4 Pa. Copper was evaporated from strips of tungsten foil 0.05 mm thick. Nickel was vaporized by the electron-beam method using an electron diode gun. The condensation speed became 0.5-1.5 nm/s. The purity of the evaporated metals was at least 99.98 %. The temperature dependences of the specific electrical resistance of CuNi alloy films for the second and subsequent heating-cooling cycles were virtually identical, indicating complete stabilization of the film samples' properties after the second annealing cycle. To explain the observed specific irreversible decrease in electrical resistance during thermal stabilization of the electrophysical properties of CuNi alloy films, we used the Wend model, which describes the healing of crystal structure defects in the films. Based on this model, the spectra of crystal structure defects in CuNi alloy films were calculated.