The effect of cold work on the low-temperature electrical resistivity of silver

High-resolution measurements have been made of the low-temperature (1 to 9 K) electrical resistivity of Ag following successive stages of cold work. Above about 3 K the effects of cold work depend upon whether the sample has had a chance to recover; this behaviour is consistent with the idea that recovery involves the relaxation of the long-range strain fields associated with dislocations. At lower temperatures cold work appears to enhance the temperature dependence of the resistivity, irrespective of recovery; this dependence is approximately quadratic in temperature with coefficient ∼1 × 10-13 Ω cm K-2, and may be associated with electron-electron scattering. Cold work without recovery seems to increase the incremental resistivity (ρT - ρ0) in Ag above about 5 K, in sharp contrast to the behaviour of Al, and in a manner that is difficult to understand on the basis of any model involving anisotropy of scattering. After recovery (ρT - ρ0) behaves much like that in an alloy of similar residual resistivity.