Percolation Effects on Electrical Resistivity and Electron Mobility

Abstract

Percolation, defined as the study of transport across a porous material, can be used to determine transport quantities of a material such as electrical and thermal conductivity. Observing the way electrons flow across a porous conductive sheet is a common way that percolation studies are performed, and has many practical applications in electronics. This study determines how elliptical pores cut into a conductive sheet affect the percolation threshold; the remaining area of the conductive sheet when the current across it first becomes zero. Past research has been performed on this topic which yielded theoretical results of the percolation thresholds, and this study aims to verify those results experimentally. This study shows that as the aspect ratio of an ellipse approaches zero, the percolation threshold approaches one. This report also establishes a novel experimental method of studying percolating networks.