Electron scattering at interfaces in epitaxial W(001)–Mo(001) multilayers

Epitaxial W–Mo multilayers are employed as a model system to demonstrate how resistivity measurements parallel to metal–metal interfaces can be used to quantify the specific interface resistance without sub-10-nm patterning that would be required for direct transport measurements across the interface. 50-nm-thick epitaxial multilayer stacks containing 2–60 individual W(001) and Mo(001) layers are deposited on MgO(001) substrates and their resistivity ρ measured as a function of superlattice period Λ at 293 and 77 K. The measured room temperature ρ increases from 7.10 to 8.62 μΩ cm with decreasing Λ = 50–1.7 nm, which is attributed to the increasing electron-interface scattering. The semiclassical Fuchs–Sondheimer model for surface scattering dramatically overestimates the resistivity, which is attributed to coherent electron transmission across multiple interfaces. A new Boltzmann transport model treats each interface as a boundary condition where electrons either scatter diffusely or traverse without momentum loss with a probability T for the first encountered interface and with 100% transmission at subsequent interfaces until they are relaxed by a bulk scattering event. This model has a single unknown parameter T, which becomes the fitting parameter for experimental data analysis, yielding a temperature-independent T = 0.8 ± 0.1 and a corresponding contact resistance at the W(001)–Mo(001) interface of 2.6 × 10−16 Ω m2.