Maximum Metallic Resistance in Thin Wires

Abstract

It is argued that electronic states should be localized in any wire whose impurity resistance is greater than about 10 kΩ. At sufficiently low temperatures this will lead to a $T^{-2\mathrm{}}$ increase in resistance because one-dimensional phonons or excited electrons are needed to cause transitions between localized states. An estimate is made of the temperature needed to observe this effect.