CORRECTIONS TO LOW-FREQUENCY RESISTANCE MEASUREMENTS OF SELF-HEATED METAL MICROSTRUCTURES

The resistance of self-heated mesoscopic structures has been used for some time as a way to probe the characteristics of electrons and phono ns in these systems. In this paper we consider the differences between low-frequency dynamic and static resistance measurements of mesoscopi c systems in the steady state. We present a general description of the se non-equilibrium experiments, and discuss the connection to an integ ration procedure used to determine the differences between the two met hods of resistance measurement. We have applied the analysis to electr on-heating experiments and have shown that the difference between the static and dynamic resistance depends on the electron-phonon coupling and the acoustic coupling appropriate for the mesoscopic structure.