Residual-resistance ratio

Residual-resistivity ratio (also known as Residual-resistance ratio or just RRR) is usually defined as the ratio of the resistivity of a material at room temperature and at 0 K. Of course, 0 K can never be reached in practice so some estimation is usually made. Since the RRR can vary quite strongly for a single material depending on the amount of impurities and other crystallographic defects, it serves as a rough index of the purity and overall quality of a sample. Since resistivity usually increases as defect prevalence increases, a large RRR is associated with a pure sample. RRR is also important for characterizing certain unusual low temperature states such as the Kondo effect and superconductivity. Note that since it is a unitless ratio there is no difference between a residual-resistivity and residual-resistance ratio.