First-principles-based screening method for resistivity scaling of anisotropic metals

TL;DR

This paper introduces a first-principles-based method to evaluate and compare the resistivity scaling of anisotropic metals in nanoelectronic interconnects, accounting for temperature effects and lattice orientations.

Contribution

It develops a finite-temperature transport tensor derived from band structures to assess anisotropic metals' electronic transport properties at the nanoscale.

Findings

Transport tensor enables comparison of anisotropic metals with different orientations.

Temperature dependence analysis validates Fermi surface-based evaluations.

Method facilitates screening of promising metals for nanoelectronic applications.

Abstract

The resistivity scaling of metals is a crucial limiting factor for further downscaling of interconnects in nanoelectronic devices that affects signal delay, heat production, and energy consumption. Here, we generalize a commonly considered figure of merit for selecting promising candidate metals with highly anisotropic Fermi surfaces in terms of their electronic transport properties at the nanoscale. For this, we introduce a finite-temperature transport tensor, based on band structures obtained from first principles. This transport tensor allows for a straightforward comparison between highly anisotropic metals in nanostructures with different lattice orientations and arbitrary transport directions. By evaluating the temperature dependence of the tensor components, we also assess the validity of a Fermi surface-based evaluation of the transport properties at zero temperature, rather than considering standard operating temperature conditions.