Resistivity of Interstitial Atoms and Vacancies in Copper

Abstract

The residual resistivity associated with the presence of interstitial atoms or vacancies in copper is studied with particular attention devoted to the scattering of conduction electrons resulting from lattice distortions surrounding the imperfections. For interstitials this scattering is found to be an order of magnitude larger than that from the defect itself. For vacancies it is smaller but still important. Interference between scattering from the defect and the surrounding lattice distortion is computed and found to be very small. The calculated resistivity associated with one atomic percent of interstitial atoms is 10.5 μohm cm. The corresponding value for vacancies is 1.5 μohm cm. Using nominal values for the energy of formation of these defects, the stored energy to resistivity ratios associated with interstitials, vacancies, and interstitial-vacancy pairs are 1.4, 3.4, and 1.6 cal/g per μohm cm, respectively.