Electric diffusion in cylindrical conductors from an extended irreversible thermodynamics perspective

Inertial effects on electric diffusion are explored in cylindrical conductors at the quasi-static limit. Such effects are described by introducing a finite relaxation time for the current density. When the electric field penetrates deeply into the conductor, it is shown that the surface inductance attains a minimum, L m , if the radius of the cylinder acquires a critical value, a c . The proposed formulation is applied to aluminum at room temperature, and it is found that L m ∼ 22.1 fH for a c ∼ 35.1 nm . This shows that inertial effects should be important at the nanoscale. The results presented here may be relevant for investigations in nanophotonics.