Kinetic phenomena in metallic multilayers

TL;DR

This paper reviews various kinetic phenomena in metallic multilayers, highlighting how electron-interface interactions influence conductivity, magnetic effects, and diffusion, with implications for understanding electron behavior and material properties.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive theoretical analysis of kinetic effects in metallic multilayers, including electron scattering, magnetic field influences, and diffusion, revealing new phenomena and potential applications.

Findings

Electron interactions with interfaces reduce conductivity.

Magnetic fields induce size and resonance effects in multilayers.

Diffusion processes can be characterized through kinetic coefficient changes.

Abstract

A series of kinetic phenomena in metallic multilayers has been considered. The kinetic properties of multilayers differ essentially from the properties of both massive metals and thin films. One of the main reasons of that is the influence of electron interaction of electrons with interfaces between layers. From one hand, this interaction leads to the additional electron scattering and conductivity of multilayer may be noticeably less than specific conductivities of composing metals. From the other hand, the electron reflection from interfaces in a strong magnetic field may results in considerable increasing of conducting properties in consequence of the static skin effect. Due to changing of electron trajectories after collisions with interfaces new types of periodic motion in the magnetic field and therefore new size and resonance phenomena in high frequency fields appear. In thin normal layers on the superconducting substrate, changing of trajectories is due to Andreev reflection and resonance effects, which do not exist in normal multilayers, films, and bulk monocrystals, take place. In multilayers consisting of ferromagnetic and nonmagnetic metals, the internal magnetic field in ferromagnetic layers must be taken into account, if the Larmor radius in this field is comparable with the layer thickness. Because of the mutual diffusion of metals, the kinetic coefficients of multilayers are changed in time. The investigation of this changing may be used for determination of diffusion coefficient for the bulk and grain-boundary diffusion. The effects, which have been analyzed theoretically in this review, can be used for the obtaining information on the electron interaction with interfaces in conducting multilayers.