Anisotropy of Electrical Resistivity in High-Purity Aluminium Single Crystals

Abstract
The current direction dependence of electrical resistivity was measured at temperatures between 4.2 and 80 K in single crystals of high-purity aluminium (RRR ≈ 50 000) with a common {110} surface. The main results found in this experiment are as follows. (1) The residual resistivity in the bulk value, p_b, shows high dependence on current direction, basically increasing, in order, in the <110>, <111> and <001> directions. This anisotropy increases in purer specimens. Moreover, current direction dependence shows a salient structure that corresponds to the structure of the Fermi surface of aluminium. (2) In the temperature region below 25 K, the temperature dependent part of the resistivity also shows the same features as the anisotropy of p_b. At higher temperatures than 25 K, this anisotropy disappears as the phonon resistivity increases.