Anisotropic dependence of the residual electrical resistivity on the current direction in aluminium single crystals

Abstract

The detailed dependence of the residual electrical resistivity on the current direction has been measured at 4.2 K in high-purity aluminium single crystals. All the specimens with the same main surface (110) were cut from one single-crystal rod with the residual resistance ratio of about 50000. The bulk residual resistivity rho 0 was obtained from the measured resistivity rho 0 according to the Fuchs-Sondheimer theory with parameters suitable for high-purity aluminium. Large anisotropy of rho 0 with a fine structure has been found with respect to the current direction: a difference between the largest and the smallest values of rho 0 reaches 80% of the latter. This anisotropy of rho 0 shows a strong correlation with the structure of the Fermi surface.