SURFACE ELECTRON-TRANSPORT AND QUANTUM-SIZE EFFECT IN ELECTRON CONDUCTIVITY OF THIN-FILMS WITH STATISTICALLY ROUGH BOUNDARIES

We derived the classical and quantum static electron conductivity [sig ma] of films with randomly rough boundaries beyond the perturbation th eory via the approximation of mildly sloping asperities, when the r.m. s. height zeta of boundary defects is less than their length L. The cl assical [sigma] is a function of three parameters: dII, zeta IL, and k (F)L (d is the film thickness, I a bulk mean free path of electrons) a nd admits full numerical analysis. The quantum [sigma] depends on d an d I separately. We revealed fundamental quantum dips of [sigma] vs. d due to spatial quantization of electron-surface scattering frequency a nd calculated the residual conductivity as bulk collisions vanish (I - -> infinity). The residual conductivity may have both quantum and excl usively classical origins at definite conditions. The theoretical resu lts were tested against recent experimental data.