Geometry Dependent Dephasing in Small Metallic Wires
01 January 2001
Temperature dependent weak localization is measured in metallic nanowires in a previously unexplored size regime down to width w=5 nm. The dephasing time, tau sub (phi), shows a low temperature T dependence close to quasi-1D theoretical expectations (tau sub (phi) ~ T sup (-2/3)) in the narrowest wires, but exhibits a relative saturation as T -> 0 for wide samples of the same material, as observed previously.
As only sample geometry is varied to exhibit both suppression and divergence of tau sub (phi), this finding provides a new constraint on models of dephasing phenomena.