Ni doping on Cu surfaces: Reduced copper resistivity

The resistivity of 9.3-nm-thick epitaxial and polycrystalline Cu is reduced by 11%–13% when coated with 0.75 nm Ni. Sequential in situ and ex situ transport measurements show that this is due to electron surface scattering which exhibits a specularity p = 0.7 for the Cu-vacuum interface that transitions to completely diffuse (p = 0) when exposed to air. In contrast, Ni-coated surfaces exhibit partial specularity with p = 0.3 in vacuum and p = 0.15 in air, as Cu2O formation is suppressed, leading to a smaller surface potential perturbation and a lower density of localized surface states, yielding less diffuse electron scattering.