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Alternate titles: specific resistivity
By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica • Article History

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Related Topics: superconductivity • resistance • conductivity • magnetoresistance • giant magnetoresistance

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resistivity, electrical resistance of a conductor of unit cross-sectional area and unit length. A
characteristic property of each material, resistivity is useful in comparing various materials on
the basis of their ability to conduct electric currents. High resistivity designates poor conductors.
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Resistivity, commonly symbolized by the Greek letter rho, ρ, is quantitatively equal to the
resistance R of a specimen such as a wire, multiplied by its cross-sectional area A, and divided by
its length l; ρ = RA/l. The unit of resistance is the ohm. In the metre-kilogram-second (mks)
system, the ratio of area in square metres to length in metres simplifies to just metres. Thus, in
the metre-kilogram-second system, the unit of resistivity is ohm-metre. If lengths are measured
in centimetres, resistivity may be expressed in units of ohm-centimetre.

More From Britannica crystal: Resistivity

The resistivity of an exceedingly good electrical conductor, such as hard-drawn copper, at 20° C
(68° F) is 1.77 × 10-8 ohm-metre, or 1.77 × 10-6 ohm-centimetre. At the other extreme, electrical
insulators have resistivities in the range 1012 to 1020 ohm-metres.
 The value of resistivity depends also on the temperature of the material; tabulations of
resistivities usually list values at 20° C. Resistivity of metallic conductors generally increases with
a rise in temperature; but resistivity of semiconductors, such as carbon and silicon, generally
decreases with temperature rise.

Conductivity is the reciprocal of resistivity, and it, too, characterizes materials on the basis of
how well electric current flows in them. The metre-kilogram-second unit of conductivity is mho
per metre, or ampere per volt-metre. Good electrical conductors have high conductivities and low
resistivities. Good insulators, or dielectrics, have high resistivities and low conductivities.
Semiconductors have intermediate values of both.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn.

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Ivar Giaever toc Table of Contents

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American physicist
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Ivar Giaever

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Born: April 5, 1929 (age 93) • Bergen • Norway

Awards And Honors: Nobel Prize (1973)

 Subjects Of Study: BCS theory • superconductivity • tunneling

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Ivar Giaever, (born April 5, 1929, Bergen, Norway), Norwegian-born American physicist who
shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1973 with Leo Esaki and Brian Josephson for work in solid-
state physics.

Giaever received an engineering degree at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim

in 1952 and became a patent examiner for the Norwegian government. In 1954 he migrated to
Canada, where he worked as a mechanical engineer with the General Electric Company in
Ontario. In 1956 he was transferred to General Electric’s Development Center in Schenectady,
New York. There he shifted his interest to physics and did graduate work at the Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, receiving a Ph.D. in 1964.
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Giaever conducted most of his work in solid-state physics and particularly in superconductivity.
He pursued the possible applications to superconductor technology of Esaki’s work in tunneling,
eventually “marrying,” as he put it, the two concepts to produce superconductor devices that
flouted previously accepted limitations and allowed electrons to pass like waves of radiation
through “holes” in solid-state devices. Using a sandwich consisting of an insulated piece of
superconducting metal and a normal one, he achieved new tunneling effects that led to greater
understanding of superconductivity and that provided support for the BCS theory of
superconductivity, for which John Bardeen (B), Leon Cooper (C), and John Robert Schrieffer (S)
had won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1972. It was for this work—based in part on Esaki’s and
further developed by Josephson—that Giaever shared the 1973 Nobel Prize with Esaki and
Josephson.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.
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