Electrical properties of bismuth-antimony thin films. III. Quantum size effect

We investigated the distinctive aspects of the quantum size effect in thin films of Bi1−xSbx alloys. The variations in the resistance ratio R4.2/R300 were studied in specimens of two types: specimens of varying thickness but fixed composition and varying composition but fixed thickness. The effective quasimomentum pzmax, which determines the period of the quantum size oscillations, is shown to be almost insensitive to variations in the thickness. Data for two forms in which the quantum size effect manifested itself in thin films of Bi1−xSbx alloys are used to plot pzmax versus the alloy composition (the direction of the smaller dimension z coincides with the trigonal axis C3).