Conductivity of single-crystal and polycrystalline bilayer metal films under the conditions of interdiffusion

The electrical conductivity of a bilayer film with a single-crystal or polycrystalline structure is theoretically investigated under the conditions of metal interdiffusion at an arbitrary ratio between the thickness of layers and the mean free path of electrons in the layers. It is shown that analysis of the changes in the electrical conductivity of the bilayer film due to diffusion annealing allows one to elucidate the nature of the processes of bulk and grain-boundary diffusion, to determine the effective depth of penetration of impurity atoms into the bulk and grain boundaries of the sample, and to obtain information on the bulk and grain-boundary diffusion coefficient.