Relationship between low-frequency noise and resistance drift in metal films

The use of low-frequency noise methods for the measurement of resistive drift in thin metal film samples is analyzed. Several simple results are derived relating resistance changes in the sample to the measured low-frequency noise. Low-frequency-noise measurements of aluminum thin films were made in the regimes of a stable sample resistance, a sample resistance that was linearly increasing with time and a sample resistance that was increasing by discrete resistance steps with time. In all cases the measured spectrum was well predicted by the change in the resistance of the sample. © 1993 The American Physical Society.