Prize Recipient

Jason Alicea
University of Florida

"Resistance of multilayers with long length scale interfacial roughness."

Alicea's thesis centered on finding a theoretical explanation for these unusual experimental results by carrying out the numerical solution of the Boltzmann transport equation. He first found that the long length scale interfacial roughness decreased resistance when the current was flowing perpendicular to the layers-the opposite of the UCSD experimental results. He then tried the short mean free path limit, and found that the resistance increased with interfacial roughness when the current flows either perpendicular or parallel to the layers, just as the UCSD researchers observed. In his manuscript, Alicea carefully addressed the question of which parameter regime one needs in order to see a resistance increase, decrease or no change at all, and these well-defined calculations will help guide future work.