Experimental study of Evanohm thin film resistors at subkelvin temperatures

Thin film resistors, based on the Evanohm (Ni_75%Cr_20%Cu_2.5%Al_2.5%) alloy, have been investigated at cryogenic temperatures. The objective of the study is the development of the high value resistor for precision electrical measurements at low temperature and particularly for metrological triangle experiments. Thin film resistors of different configurations have been designed and fabricated by the thermal evaporation process. The resistivity of investigated resistors is 110 × 10⁻⁸ Ω m; the resistance exhibits a Kondo minimum at a temperature near 30 K and increases with further reduction of temperature. In the temperature range 50–65 mK, the temperature coefficient reaches −20 × 10⁻³ K⁻¹. Power dependence measurements at subkelvin temperatures demonstrate that noticeable electron overheating takes place only at the power level above 10 pW for a 500 kΩ resistor. The electron–phonon coupling constant for the fabricated Evanohm thin films has been derived from experimental results.