Temperature dependent electrical resistivity of a single strand of ferromagnetic single crystalline nanowire

Abstract

We have measured the electrical resistivity of a single strand of a ferromagnetic Ni nanowire of diameter 55 nm using a four-probe method in the temperature range 3-300 K. The wire used is chemically pure and is a high quality oriented single crystalline sample in which the temperature independent residual resistivity is determined predominantly by surface scattering. Precise evaluation of the temperature dependent resistivity (ρ) allowed us to identify quantitatively the electron-phonon contribution (characterized by a Debye temperature θ_R) as well as the spin-wave contribution, which is significantly suppressed upon size reduction.