Sheet resistance measurements are a versatile tool that can be used in a wide variety of applications and industries, including:
- Characterizing the electrical properties of new materials
- Monitoring the deposition process of thin films
- Determining the uniformity of semiconducting and conductive thin films
- Verifying the quality of electrode materials
Conventionally, sheet resistance measurements are carried out at room temperature. However, many thin-film materials are utilized in extreme temperature environments, like in cryostats for quantum technology development or at elevated temperatures for solar energy applications.
In this new app brief, we demonstrate a variable temperature, four-wire sheet resistance measurement performed in a Lake Shore CRX-4K probe station capable of operating at temperatures below 4 K and at temperatures as high as 675 K. This setup also included our M81-SSM synchronous source measure system used for electrical measurements and the system’s MeasureLINK™ software used to continuously monitor temperature and carry out a current reversal protocol in the resistance measurement to remove thermoelectric voltage offsets.
