4.

Conductor Materials

4.1 Definitions and General Properties

Conduction is name given to the movement of electrons, or ions, or both giving rise to the
phenomena described by the term electric current. The effects of a current include a
redistribution of charges, heating of conductors, magnetic effects, and many subsidiary
phenomena.
There is a large number of highly optimized materials which are used as conductors
nowadays. Just enumerating them is tiresome and not very interesting. Still, some
knowledge of this issue is a must for electronic engineers in the context of electronic
materials. As far as "theory" goes, there is either not much that goes beyond a basic
knowledge of solid state physics (which, it is assumed, you already have), or very
involved special theory (e.g. for superconductors), for which there is no time. In
conclusion, we will only touch the issue, trying to present all major facets of the topic. In
particular, some of the applications for conductors will be covered. This chapter,
however, will be brief.
The essential parameters of interest for conductors are specific resistivity [m] or
specific conductivity = 1/ [S/m].
A homogeneous material with a constant cross-sectional area S and a length l thus has a
resistance of R = ( l)/S.
Or, in other words, a cube with 1 cm length has a resistance R given in that is
numerically equal to its specific resistance given in cm.
The range of resistivity values (at room temperature) for metals is rather limited; here are
some values as well as a first and last while closely related.

Alloys with specific properties are used in many applications. We may treat the resulting
mix of metal particles as a network of resistors being linked in series and parallel like in
Fig.4.2. It is not possible to produce an alloy with a resistivity smaller than one of its
components. For example the resistivity of manganin (86% copper, 12% manganese, and
2% nickel) is = 4,210-5m.

The resistivity of metals decreases as the temperature decreases and by extrapolation

could be expected to become zero at a temperature of absolute zero, 0K. However, for
some metals, the resistivity suddenly drops to zero at a temperature above absolute zero,
like inFig. 4.3. Such materials are said to be superconductors. The temperature at wich
this abrupt change to zero resistivity occurs is called the critical temperature Tc. The
superconductivity can be destroyed if a superconductor, bellow the critical temperature,
is in a magnetic field which is above some critical value or the current density in the
material is above some critical value. Some critical temperatures values and critical field
values are 1.175K and 7.9 kA/m for aluminum, 4.2K and 33kA/m for mercury, 4.47K
and 66kA/m for tantalum. At lower field strengths the superconducting material may
completely exclude the magnetic field, a phenomenon known as Meissner effect, shown
schematically in Fig. 4.4. In this case the material is a perfect diamagnetic material.

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4.2 Conduction in various media

4.2.1 Conduction in metals

Electrical conduction for good conductors metals, involves the movement of the valence
or free electrons. A simple picture of a metal is of an array of metal ions, called a crystal
lattice, which are in continual oscillation about their fixed positions because of thermal
energy, with the free electrons continually having collisions with them and as a
consequence moving about in a random manner within metal. Fig. 4.5a represents a piece
of metal which does not have current flowing through it. The arrows represent the
random thermal motion of the electrons (their average speed at room temperature is
hundreds of km/s). When an electric field is applied to the metal, the electrons are given
a velocity component in the opposite direction to the field, like in Fig. 4.5b.
This motion is more regular and results in a general "drift" of electrons through the metal.
A typical drift velocity for electrons in metals is <1mm/s. The drift is slow, but such great
numbers of electrons may be involved that very large currents, entirely due to electron
drift, can be produced by this means.
The resistance of a piece of metal is due to collisions between the free electrons and the
metal ions. The ions "get in the way" of the electrons and impede their progress through
the metal. During a collision, some of the kinetic energy possessed by the electron can be
transferred to the ion thus increasing the amplitude of the lattice vibrations. Therefore,
resistance to the flow of current causes the temperature to increase or in other words,
resistance causes electrical energy to be converted into thermal energy (internal energy).
In Fig.4.5, the thermal motion of the ions has been ignored. Figure 4.6 represents the
situation a little more realistically. It is clear that as the amplitude of the lattice vibrations
increases the ions will "get in the way" of the free electrons more. This suggests that the
resistance of a piece of metal should increase with temperature.

Consider the current through the conductor shown in Fig. 4.7. If the mean value of the
drift velocity is vd then in a time t all the electrons in volume vdtS will have moved
through the cross section of the conductor. S is the cross sectional area of the conductor.
If there are n free electrons per unit volume, each with a charge e=1,610-19C then the
amount of charged moved through the cross section in time t is

(4.1)

Since current I is the rate of movement of charge then

(4.2)

This equation is often written in terms of the current density J, this being the current per
unit cross sectional area. Hence

(4.3)

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Because the resistance of the conductor is given by R l / S , where l is the length of
the conductor, the voltage is given by

(4.4)

But the electric field E in material is U/l. Hence

(4.5)

Instead of using the resistivity, equation has been written in terms of conductivity .
From relation (4.5), the current per unit area i.e. the current density is

(4.6)

Equations (4.3) and (4.6) can be combined in another equation

(4.7)

The term vd/E, i.e. the drift velocity per unit electric field is called the mobility .
Mobility is a measure of ease of carrier motion within a material. The density and
mobility of mobile charged carriers thus determines the conductivity. The carrier density
is a function of bonding, defects and temperature in general. In metals, however, n is
nearly constant. The mobility is a function of collisions between carriers and/or between
carriers and obstacles. As a consequence of the electric field the electrons are colliding
with metal ions, then accelerating under the action of the electric field until a further
collision occurs. The electron drift velocity thus varies in a sawtooth manner like in Fig.
4.8. The average time between collisions, is called the relaxation time.
When the temperature of a metal is increased the atoms vibrate more about their mean
positions and so impede the movement of the electrons more. Thus the time between
collisions will be reduced. A reduction in the relaxation time means a reduction in the
conductivity and thus an increase in temperature means a reduction in conductivity or an
increase in resistivity. Fig. 4.9 shows how the resistivity varies with temperature for some
metals. The temperature dependence, expressed e.g. in (300K)/(100K) may be a factor
of 5 ...10, so it is not a small factor. It may be used and is used, for measuring
temperatures, e.g. with well-known Pt resistivity thermometers. A measure of this
variation is the temperature coefficient = 1/ d / dT. The pure metals temperature
coefficient is grater than the alloys temperature coefficient. For example Cu=3,810-31/K
and manganin=1510-61/K.

4.2.1 Theory of superconductivity

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 The BCS (Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer) theory is a first principles theory of
superconductivity. In normal metals, individual electrons are scattered by impurities and
by phonons. A phonon is a quantized mode of vibration occurring in a rigid crystal
lattice, such as the atomic lattice of a solid. Due to the connections between atoms, the
displacement of one or more atoms from their equilibrium positions will give rise to a set
of vibration waves propagating through the lattice. One such wave is shown in the figure
4.10. The amplitude of the wave is given by the displacements of the atoms from their
equilibrium positions. The wavelength is marked. Phonons are a quantum mechanical
version of vibrational motion, in which each part of a lattice oscillates with the same
frequency. In a superconductor below its transition temperature Tc, there is no resistance
because these scattering mechanisms are unable to impede the motion of the current
carriers. The current is carried in all known classes of superconductor by pairs of
electrons known as Cooper pairs. These electrons changes their energies indirectly, via
phonon interaction. This pairing results from a slight attraction between the electrons
related to lattice vibrations; the coupling to the lattice is called a phonon interaction.
The mechanism by which two negatively charged electrons are bound together is still
controversial in "modern" superconducting materials such as the copper oxides or alkali
metal fullerides, but well understood in conventional superconductors such as aluminium
in terms of the mathematically complex BCS (Bardeen Cooper Schrieffer) theory. The
essential point is that below Tc the binding energy of a pair of electrons causes the
opening of a gap in the energy spectrum at Ef (the Fermi energy - the highest occupied
level in a solid), separating the pair states from the "normal" single electron states. The
size of a Cooper pair is given by the coherence length which is typically 1000 (though it
can be as small as 30 in the copper oxides). The space occupied by one pair contains
many other pairs, and there is thus a complex interdependence of the occupancy of the pair
states. There is then insufficient thermal energy to scatter the pairs, as reversing the
direction of travel of one electron in the pair requires the destruction of the pair and many
other pairs due to the nature of the many-electron BCS wavefunction. The pairs thus carry
current unimpeded. BCS theory applies directly to superconductors such as NbGe (Tc =
23K) in which the electrons are bound together by their interaction with the vibrations of
the underlying lattice: one electron in the pair polarizes the lattice by attracting the nuclei
towards it, leaving a region of excess positive charge (a potential well) into which a second
electron is attracted - the positively charged nuclei thus mediate an attraction between the
negatively charged electrons. Only electrons within the vibrational frequency of Ef can be
paired by this interaction, and so only a small fraction of the electrons become
superconducting.

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Technical materials

4.3.1 Conductor Types

Tough Pitch Copper (TPC) is the name given to unprocessed copper: the type usually
employed in general purpose cabling such as power leads and many inexpensive audio
cables. TPC is melted once and formed into a cylindrical conductor (wire) which is then
allowed to cool. This wire is then repeatedly drawn to reduce it to the desired diameter.
TPC contains somewhere between 300 and 500 ppm of oxygen and other impurities,
which is considered far too high for serious audio applications. When used as speaker
cables, mains power cables tend to cause a loss of fine detail resulting in a 'woolly' or dull
sounding system. This is due to the TPC and also, in part, to the PVC insulation used in
standard mains power cables. Oxygen free copper was developed in Japan around 1975 as
it became increasingly apparent that sound quality was related to the quality of copper and
the processing used during cable manufacture. OFC is produced through an extrusion
process which takes place in an oxygen-free-inert-gas atmosphere. This leads to a reduced
oxygen content (10 ppm) when compared to TPC and an improvement in conductivity
which typically measures in at between 0.5% and 2% greater than TPC. The OFC process
therefore produces a much higher quality audio cable than the TPC process. High purity
conductors sound clearer than their unprocessed (TPC) counterparts because there are
fewer crystal boundaries present to cause signal degradation. Good HF dynamics are a
characteristic of silver plated copper conductors. Silver plated copper can make a dull
sounding system come to life, but at the expense of good quality bass or LF delivery.
Silver plated copper cables can also prove fatiguing over prolonged listening periods.
Silver plated copper, or cables employing two materials of differing resistance, are best
avoided for audio interconnects and speaker cables.
Silver, with its lower resistivity, is a better conductor than copper, but any conductor,
whether silver or copper, must have a reasonable cross sectional area when used for audio
applications. Silver is much more expensive than copper and, in order to keep costs
within reason, the cross sectional area of silver audio cables are often compromised to an
extent that the resulting sound is 'bass light'. Good silver cables are, however, fast,
dynamic and seamless through the audio spectrum and provide exceptional detail and
instrument resolution.
The skin effect
Different frequencies occupy different (radial) positions within a conductor. Low
frequency signals occupy the centre of a conductor, while the higher frequency signals
are confined to the conductor's surface. This is known as 'the skin effect'. High frequency
signals are therefore constrained to flow within a smaller cross sectional area of the
conductor than the low frequency ones so that the effective cable resistance seen by the
high frequency signals is greater than that seen by the low frequency signals. Cable losses
are therefore frequency dependent, with the high frequencies undergoing the most loss.

The electrical resistance of the conductor with all its cross-sectional area in use is known
as the DC resistance, the AC resistance of the same conductor referring to a higher

5
resistance resulting from the skin effect. As you can see, at high frequencies the AC
current avoids travel through most of the conductor's cross-sectional area. For the purpose
of conducting current, the wire might as well be hollow!
In some radio applications (antennas, most notably) this effect is exploited. Since radio-
frequency (RF) AC currents wouldn't travel through the middle of a conductor anyway,
most antenna structures and RF power conductors are made of hollow metal tubes for this
reason. In the Fig. 4.14 you can see some large inductors used in a 50 kW radio
transmitting circuit. The inductors are hollow copper tubes coated with silver, for
excellent conductivity at the skin of the tube.

The equation for calculating the skin depth is given here:

(4.8)

Where is skin depth [m], f is frequency [Hz], is the conductivity of the material [S/m].
The skin depth is defined as the depth below the surface of the conductor at which the
current density decays to 1/e (about 0.37) of the current density at the surface.

The degree to which frequency affects the effective resistance of a solid wire conductor is
impacted by the gauge of that wire. As a rule, large-gauge wires exhibit a more
pronounced skin effect (change in resistance from DC) than small-gauge wires at any
given frequency.

Litz wire consists of thin strands of enamel insulated wire held together by an outer
covering of silk or cotton. There will usually be at least 5 strands but perhaps as many as
1000 or more. Its purpose is to minimize the resistive losses that arise at high frequencies
due to skin effect. The insulation ensures that the current flows in all of the wires in the
bundle as the charge cannot migrate towards the surface of the bundle. The entire cross
section of conductor bundle is therefore used by the charge transport. Provided that the
individual strands are thin enough, the strands all have individual radii that are small
compared to the skin depth. Hence the overall properties of the Litz bundle tends to be
similar to that of a single wire of the same diameter of the bundle but where skin effect
is apparently absent. Litz wire is mostly used within the frequency range 10kHz to
1MHz.

4.3.2 Materials for resistors

The resistor is an electrical device whose primary function is to introduce resistance to

the flow of electric current. The magnitude of opposition to the flow of current is called
the resistance of the resistor. A larger resistance value indicates a greater opposition to
current flow. The following sections discuss the common types of resistors.

Wirewound resistors
The resistor element is a resistive wire (nickel-chromium alloy) which is wound in a
single layer on a ceramic rod. The spiral winding has inductive and capacitive
characteristics that make it unsuitable for operation above 50 kHz. Metal caps are pressed
over the ends of the rod. The ends of the resistance wire and the leads are connected to
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the caps by welding. Tinned copper clad iron leads with poor heat conductivity are
employed permitting the use of relatively short leads to obtain stable mounting without
overheating the solder joint. The resistor is coated with a silicon cement. The main
features of this type of resistor are high power dissipation in small volume and high pulse
load handling capabilities. Some resistors are designed to pass very large currents and are
cased in aluminium with fins to increase surface area and promote heat loss like in Fig.
4.17. The wirewound resistors can become extremely hot when used for high power
applications, and this must be taken into account when designing the circuit.

Film resistors
Carbon film resistors are cheap and easily available, with values within 10% or 5% of
their marked, or 'nominal' value. These resistors have a homogeneous film of pure carbon
deposited on a high grade ceramic body. The resistive coating is spiralled away in an
automatic machine until the resistance between the two ends of the rod is as close as
possible to the correct value. Metal leads and end caps are added, the resistor is covered
with an insulating coating and finally painted with coloured bands to indicate the resistor
value. Metal film and metal oxide resistors are made in a similar way, but can be made
more accurately to within 2% or 1% of their nominal value. There are some
differences in performance between these resistor types, but none which affect their use
in simple circuits.

4.3.3 Technical superconductors materials

There are two types of superconductors. Type 1 superconductors exhibits only two
phases, normal and superconducting. The transitions between these phases is very sharp
and occurs at a particular critical field strength Hc. The Type 1 category of
superconductors is mainly comprised of metals and metalloids that show some
conductivity at room temperature. They require incredible cold to slow down molecular
vibrations sufficiently to facilitate unimpeded electron flow in accordance with what is
known as BCS theory. Types 2 superconductors exhibit an intermediate phase known as
the mixed state. This state exists at a field strength between Hc1, the critical field for
transition from the flux free state to the mixed state, and Hc2 the critical field for
transition from the mixed state to the normal state. In this intermediate state the materials
consist of a honeycomb structure of normal material within a superconducting matrix.
Most alloys are type 2 superconductors. They achieve higher Tc's than Type 1
superconductors by a mechanism that is still not completely understood. Up till around
1986, all known superconductors had critical temperatures of below 23 Kelvin. These
could only be cooled by helium, which in a liquid form is expensive and dangerous. But
in 1987, a research laboratory in Zurich started experiments into using metal oxides as
superconductors. The oxide used would be copper, to act as the in-between for the
electron pairs (see above). It was found that this had a critical temperature of 30 Kelvin.
The research focused on trying to find a room temperature superconductor. As time went
on the critical temperature rose. In the last years the critical temperature had now
reached over 77 Kelvin. This was a major breakthrough. Superconductivity could now

7
be achieved by the use of liquid nitrogen. This is cheaper and much safer then liquid
helium. Today, the highest critical temperatures are approaching 200 Kelvin, over two
thirds of the way to achieving a superconducting material with a critical temperature that
can be achieved without cooling.
Type II superconductors such as niobium-tin and niobium-titanium are used to make the
coil windings for superconducting magnets. These two materials can be fabricated into
wires and can withstand high magnetic fields. Typical construction of the coils is to
embed a large number of fine filaments ( 20 micrometers diameter) in a copper matrix
like in Fig. 4.19. The solid copper gives mechanical stability and provides a path for the
large currents in case the superconducting state is lost. Although copper is one of the best
room- temperature conductors, it acts almost as an insulator between the strands. These
superconducting magnets must be cooled with liquid helium.

Superconducting magnets find application in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the

human body. Besides requiring strong magnetic fields on the order of a Tesla, magnetic
resonance imaging requires extremely uniform fields across the subject and extreme
stability over time. Maintaining the magnet coils in the superconducting state helps to
achieve parts-per-million spacial uniformity over a space large enough to hold a person,
and ppm/hour stability with time. The magnets in use today in MRI are in the 0.5-tesla to
2.0-tesla range, or 5,000 to 20,000 gauss. Compared with the Earth's 0.5-gauss magnetic
field, you can see how incredibly powerful these magnets are.
There are three basic types of magnets.
Resistive magnets consist of many windings or coils of wire wrapped around a
cylinder through which an electric current is passed. This causes a magnetic field to be
generated. If the electricity is turned off, the magnetic field dies out. These magnets are
lower in cost to construct than a superconducting magnet, but require huge amounts of
electricity (up to 50 kilowatts) to operate because of the natural resistance in the wire. To
operate this type of magnet above about the 0.3-tesla level would be prohibitively
expensive.
A permanent magnet is just that -- permanent. Its magnetic field is always there
and always on full strength, so it costs nothing to maintain the field. The major drawback
is that these magnets are extremely heavy: They weigh many, many tons at the 0.4-tesla
level. A stronger field would require a magnet so heavy it would be difficult to construct.
Permanent magnets are getting smaller, but are still limited to low field strengths.
Superconducting magnets are by far the most commonly used. A superconducting
magnet is somewhat similar to a resistive magnet -- coils or windings of wire through
which a current of electricity is passed create the magnetic field. The important difference
is that the wire is continually bathed in liquid helium. In this way the resistance in the
wire to drop to zero, reducing the electrical requirement for the system dramatically and
making it much more economical to operate. Superconductive systems are still very
expensive, but they can easily generate 0.5-tesla to 2.0-tesla fields, allowing for much
higher-quality imaging.

Magnetic fields are actively excluded from superconductors (Meissner effect). If a small
magnet is brought near a superconductor, it will be repelled becaused induced
supercurrents will produce mirror images of each pole. If a small permanent magnet is

8
placed above a superconductor, it can be levitated by this repulsive force. The black
ceramic material in the illustrations is a sample of the yttrium based superconductor.
The Meissner effect in superconductors like this black ceramic yttrium based
superconductor acts to exclude magnetic fields from the material. Since the electrical
resistance is zero, supercurrents are generated in the material to exclude the magnetic
fields from a magnet brought near it. The currents which cancel the external field produce
magnetic poles which mirror the poles of the permanent magnet, repelling them to
provide the lift to levitate the magnet.

The levitation process is quite remarkable. Since the levitating currents in the
superconductor meet no resistance, they can adjust almost instantly to maintain the
levitation. The suspended magnet can be moved, put into oscillation, or even spun rapidly
and the levitation currents will adjust to keep it in suspension.
Superconductors expel magnetic field, and hence repel magnets. This repulsion can be
stronger than gravity, which leads to levitation - the most fascinating manifestation of
superconductivity.

Developments in superconducting materials have produced an easy and dramatic method

of demonstrating diamagnetic levitation. A superconductor will not allow a magnetic
field to penetrate its interior. It causes currents to flow that generate a magnetic field
inside the superconductor that balances the field that would have otherwise penetrated the
material. By placing a strong permanent magnet above a superconductor, the magnet will
levitate.

Some application of the superconducting levitation at present are the magnetically

levitated train and superconducting motors.