1.1
Resistors or conductors with uniform In a hydraulic analogy, passing current through a highresistivity material is like pushing water through a pipe
cross-section
Many resistors and conductors have a uniform cross section with a uniform ow of electric current, and are made
of one material. (See the diagram to the right.) In this
case, the electrical resistivity (Greek: rho) is dened
as:
full of sand, while passing current through a lowresistivity material is like pushing water through an empty
pipe. If the pipes are the same size and shape, the pipe
full of sand has higher resistance to ow. But resistance is
not solely determined by the presence or absence of sand;
it also depends on the length and width of the pipe: short
or wide pipes will have lower resistance than narrow or
long pipes.
A
=R ,
where
R= .
A
2 CAUSES OF CONDUCTIVITY
2 Causes of conductivity
The formula R = /A can be used to intuitively un- 2.1 Band theory simplied
derstand the meaning of a resistivity value. For example, if A = 1m2 and = 1m (forming a cube with per- See also: Band theory
fectly conductive contacts on opposite faces), then the re- Quantum mechanics states that electrons in an atom
sistance of this element in ohms is numerically equal to
the resistivity of the material it is made of in ohm-meters.
Likewise, a 1 ohmcm material would have a resistance of
1 ohm if contacted on opposite faces of a 1 cm1 cm1
cm cube.
Conductivity (Greek: sigma) is dened as the inverse
of resistivity:
1
.
1.2
General denition
The above denition was specic to resistors or conductors with a uniform cross-section, where current ows
uniformly through them. A more basic and general denition starts from the fact that if there is electric eld inside a material, it will cause electric current to ow. The
electrical resistivity is dened as the ratio of the electric
eld to the density of the current it creates:
E
,
J
where
is the resistivity of the conductor material
(measured in ohmmetres, m),
E is the magnitude of the electric eld (in volts
per metre, Vm1 ),
J is the magnitude of the current density (in
amperes per square metre, Am2 ),
in which E and J are inside the conductor.
Conductivity is the inverse:
1
J
= .
Filling of the electronic Density of states in various types of materials at equilibrium. Here the vertical axis is energy while the
horizontal axis is the Density of states for a particular band in
the material listed. In metals and semimetals the Fermi level EF
lies inside at least one band. In insulators and semiconductors
the Fermi level is inside a band gap; however, in semiconductors the bands are near enough to the Fermi level to be thermally
populated with electrons or holes.
2.3
tors, the number of electrons happens to be just the right 2.3 In semiconductors and insulators
amount to ll a certain integer number of low energy
bands, exactly to the boundary. In this case, the Fermi Main articles: Semiconductor and Insulator (electricity)
level falls within a band gap. Since there are no available
states near the Fermi level, and the electrons are not freely
In metals, the Fermi level lies in the conduction band (see
movable, the electronic conductivity is very low.
Band Theory, above) giving rise to free conduction electrons. However, in semiconductors the position of the
Fermi level is within the band gap, approximately half2.2 In metals
way between the conduction band minimum and valence
band maximum for intrinsic (undoped) semiconductors.
This means that at 0 kelvin, there are no free conduction
electrons and the resistance is innite. However, the resistance will continue to decrease as the charge carrier
density in the conduction band increases. In extrinsic
(doped) semiconductors, dopant atoms increase the majority charge carrier concentration by donating electrons
to the conduction band or accepting holes in the valence
band. For both types of donor or acceptor atoms, increasing the dopant density leads to a reduction in the resistance, hence highly doped semiconductors behave metallically. At very high temperatures, the contribution of
thermally generated carriers will dominate over the contribution from dopant atoms and the resistance will decrease exponentially with temperature.
Like balls in a Newtons cradle, electrons in a metal quickly transfer energy from one terminal to another, despite their own negligible movement.
2.5 Superconductivity
Main article: Superconductivity
The electrical resistivity of a metallic conductor decreases gradually as temperature is lowered. In ordinary
conductors, such as copper or silver, this decrease is limited by impurities and other defects. Even near absolute
zero, a real sample of a normal conductor shows some
resistance. In a superconductor, the resistance drops
abruptly to zero when the material is cooled below its
critical temperature. An electric current owing in a loop
of superconducting wire can persist indenitely with no
power source.[9]
K (183 C). Such a high transition temperature is theoretically impossible for a conventional superconductor,
leading the materials to be termed high-temperature superconductors. Liquid nitrogen boils at 77 K, facilitating
many experiments and applications that are less practical at lower temperatures. In conventional superconductors, electrons are held together in pairs by an attraction
mediated by lattice phonons. The best available model
of high-temperature superconductivity is still somewhat
crude. There is a hypothesis that electron pairing in hightemperature superconductors is mediated by short-range
spin waves known as paramagnons.[10]
2.6
Plasma
5
An insulator like glass has low conductivity and a
high resistivity.
4 Temperature dependence
4.1 Linear approximation
The conductivity of a semiconductor is generally intermediate, but varies widely under dierent conditions, such as exposure of the material to electric
elds or specic frequencies of light, and, most important, with temperature and composition of the
semiconductor material.
(T ) = 0 [1 + (T T0 )]
where is called the temperature coecient of resistivity,
T0 is a xed reference temperature (usually room temperature), and 0 is the resistivity at temperature T0 . The
parameter is an empirical parameter tted from measurement data. Because the linear approximation is only
an approximation, is dierent for dierent reference
temperatures. For this reason it is usual to specify the
temperature that was measured at with a sux, such as
15 , and the relationship only holds in a range of temperatures around the reference.[35] When the temperature
varies over a large temperature range, the linear approximation is inadequate and a more detailed analysis and
understanding should be used.
tivity
4.3
Semiconductors
Some materials are anisotropic, meaning they have different properties in dierent directions. For example, a
Extrinsic (doped) semiconductors have a far more comcrystal of graphite consists microscopically of a stack of
plicated temperature prole. As temperature increases
sheets, and current ows very easily through each sheet,
starting from absolute zero they rst decrease steeply in
but moves much less easily from one sheet to the next.[28]
resistance as the carriers leave the donors or acceptors.
After most of the donors or acceptors have lost their car- For an anisotropic material, it is not generally valid to use
riers the resistance starts to increase again slightly due to the scalar equations
the reducing mobility of carriers (much as in a metal).
At higher temperatures it will behave like intrinsic semiconductors as the carriers from the donors/acceptors be- J = E E = J.
come insignicant compared to the thermally generated
For example, the current may not ow in exactly the same
carriers.[38]
This equation is used to calibrate thermistors.
7
direction as the electric eld. Instead, the equations are lines, aluminium is frequently used rather than copper begeneralized to the 3D tensor form[40][41]
cause it is lighter for the same conductance.
Silver, although it is the least resistive metal known, has
a high density and does poorly by this measure. CalJ = E E = J
cium and the alkali metals have the best resistivity-density
products, but are rarely used for conductors due to their
where the conductivity and resistivity are rank-2
high reactivity with water and oxygen. Aluminium is far
tensors (in other words, 33 matrices). The equations
more stable. Two other important attributes, price and
are compactly illustrated in component form (using index
toxicity, exclude the (otherwise) best choice: Beryllium.
notation and the summation convention):[42]
Thus, aluminium is usually the metal of choice when the
weight of some required conduction (and/or the cost of
conduction) is the driving consideration.
Ji = ij Ej Ei = ij Jj .
The and tensors are inverses (in the sense of a matrix
inverse). The individual components are not necessarily
inverses; for example, xx may not be equal to 1/xx.
9 See also
Classication of materials based on permittivity
If the materials resistivity is known, calculating the resistance of something made from it may, in some cases,
be much more complicated than the formula R = /A
above. One example is Spreading Resistance Proling,
where the material is inhomogeneous (dierent resistivity in dierent places), and the exact paths of current ow
are not obvious.
In cases like this, the formulas
J = E E = J
need to be replaced with
10 Notes
[1] The numbers in this column increase or decrease the
signicand portion of the resistivity. For example, at 30
C (303 K), the resistivity of silver is 1.65108 . This is
calculated as = T where is the resistivity at
20 C (in this case) and is the temperature coecient.
[2] Referred to as 100% IACS or International Annealed
Copper Standard. The unit for expressing the conductivity of nonmagnetic materials by testing using the eddycurrent method. Generally used for temper and alloy verication of aluminium.
[3] Gold is commonly used in electrical contacts because it
does not easily corrode.
11
11
References
[1] Lowrie. Fundamentals of Geophysics. Cambridge University Press. pp. 254. ISBN 978-1-139-46595-3.
[2] Narinder Kumar (2003). Comprehensive Physics XII.
Laxmi Publications. pp. 282. ISBN 978-81-7008-5928.
[3] Eric Bogatin (2004). Signal Integrity: Simplied. Prentice
Hall Professional. pp. 114. ISBN 978-0-13-066946-9.
[4] Bonding (sl). ibchem.com
[5] Current versus Drift Speed. The physics classroom. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
[6] Lowe, Doug (2012). Electronics All-in-One For Dummies.
John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-14704-7.
[7] Current Electricity - Lesson 3 - Electrical Resistance.
The physics classroom. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
[8] Suresh V Vettoor Electrical Conduction and Superconductivity. ias.ac.in. September 2003
[9] John C. Gallop (1990). SQUIDS, the Josephson Eects and
Superconducting Electronics. CRC Press. pp. 3, 20. ISBN
0-7503-0051-5.
[10] D. Pines (2002). The Spin Fluctuation Model for
High Temperature Superconductivity: Progress and
Prospects. The Gap Symmetry and Fluctuations in HighTc Superconductors. NATO Science Series: B: 371. New
York: Kluwer Academic. pp. 111142. doi:10.1007/0306-47081-0_7. ISBN 0-306-45934-5.
[11] See Flashes in the Sky: Earths Gamma-Ray Bursts Triggered by Lightning
[12] Yaa Eliezer, Shalom Eliezer, The Fourth State of Matter:
An Introduction to the Physics of Plasma, Publisher: Adam
Hilger, 1989, ISBN 978-0-85274-164-1, 226 pages, page
5
[13] Bittencourt, J.A. (2004). Fundamentals of Plasma
Physics. Springer. p. 1. ISBN 9780387209753.
[14] Hong, Alice (2000). Dielectric Strength of Air. The
Physics Factbook.
[15] Physicists Show Electrons Can Travel More Than 100
Times Faster in Graphene. Newsdesk.umd.edu (2008-0324). Retrieved on 2014-02-03.
REFERENCES
Transmission-line.net.
Re-
12
Further reading
Paul Tipler (2004). Physics for Scientists and Engineers: Electricity, Magnetism, Light, and Elementary
Modern Physics (5th ed.). W. H. Freeman. ISBN
0-7167-0810-8.
Measuring Electrical Conductivity and Resistivity
13
External links
Electrical Conductivity. Sixty Symbols. Brady Haran for the University of Nottingham. 2010.
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14.2
Images
14.3
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