Temperature dependence of resistivity increases induced by thiols adsorption in gold nanosheets

Abstract

Abstract By utilizing stable thiol self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold (Au) nanosheets, we investigated the temperature dependence of the amount of resistivity increases Δ ρ ad by SAM modification. Δ ρ ad increased with increasing temperature from 5 to 375 K in all the measured nanosheets for various thicknesses (9–20 nm). We consider from the DFT calculation that the temperature dependence originates from unoccupied states of sulfur atoms above the Fermi level of Au. The available unoccupied states increase at higher temperatures, which enhances scattering rates and thus increases the resistivity. Furthermore, we calculated the temperature dependence of Δ ρ ad using the Bloch–Grüneisen theory and Fuchs–Sondheimer (FS) model. Based on the results, we conclude that for ultra-thin metal films, the temperature-dependent specularity parameter P T which represents the fraction of electrons scattered specularly should be introduced into the conventional FS model to predict Δ ρ ad over a wide temperature range.