New insights in the T dependence of the electrical resistivity in size-effect dominated pure metal foils from measurements on high-purity Au at low T

Analysis of Soffer's size-effect theory for electrical resistivity shows, for measurements in such a T range for which the temperature dependent portion of the resistivity, ρ_i, is always much smaller than the residual bulk resistivity ρ_∞(0) of the metal studied, that while size-effects leave the essential T dependence of ρ_i unchanged, it may increase its absolute value and the observed residual resistivity ρ(0), thus explaining recent results of Caplin et al. This also corrects the general conclusion arrived at by the latter authors, i.e. that the T dependence of ρ of a metal foil of given residual resistivity is the same as that of a bulk sample of the same residual resistivity provided that the latter is governed by impurity scattering, as being true for a narrow T range only, i.e. for which ρ_i(T) ? ρ_∞(0). However, for this T range a procedure is outlined which allows one to extract values of the surface specularity parameter p_S and also ρ_∞ of the metal foils studied.