Thickness dependence of temperature coefficient of resistivity of polycrystalline bismuth films

Results for the temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR) of polycrystalline bismuth films deposited on to glass substrate are reported for the thickness range 30–300 nm. The film TCR is found to be negative for all thicknesses studied and its absolute value exhibits a maximum of 3.70×10^–3 K^–1 near 72.5 nm. The variation of charge carrier density with film thickness has been estimated from the presence of surface states. To include the thickness dependence of charge carrier density, a modified theory has been used to explain the observed behaviour of the TCR. The experimental results for the TCR of Bi films are found to be consistent with the theoretical values. The existence of the extremum is theoretically verified. From the analysis, the specularity parameter p is about 0.44 and the reflection coefficient R is 0.1.