Surface scattering in metallic nanowires

Electronic transport with surface scattering in metallic nanowires is studied theoretically based on an atomistic tight-binding approach. It is shown that the mean free path (MFP) strongly depends on the size of the wire and the scattering potential at the surface. In the weak scattering regime, the MFP grows with the wire diameter in an oscillatory manner. A perturbation theory is developed to explain this finite size effect. For narrow wires with small roughness, we show that the surface can be the dominant source of scattering and increases the resistivity well above the bulk value, which will adversely impact the future application of nanowire. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3006050]