Annealing effects on the thermoelectric power of thin copper and silver films

The effect of annealing on the thermoelectric power of thin copper and silver films has been investigated. Using Matthiessen's rule, the thermoelectric power is separated into three components: S₀ due to bulk lattice scattering, S_s due to surface scattering and S_i due to scattering by imperfections. The values of S₀ and S_s are independent of the film thickness, whereas S_i varies with film thickness. However, S_i approaches a constant value for both copper and silver when the film thickness is larger than 1000 Å. The values of S_s obtained for copper and silver films are 1.33 μV/°K and 3.23 μV/°K respectively. For thicker films (t>1000 Å), the values of S_i for copper and silver films are 3.89 μV/°K and 9.63 μV/°K respectively.