Electron-phonon-impurity interference effect in disordered Au56Pd44 and IrO2 thick films

Abstract

We have fabricated a series of Au56Pd44 thick films with a wide range of residual resistivity rho(0) varying from 40 to 280 mu Omega cm. The resistivities of these films were measured between 15 and 300 K. We found that at temperatures below about 0.1 theta(D) (theta(D) is the Debye temperature), the interference mechanism between the elastic electron scattering and electron-phonon scattering (the electron-phonon-impurity interference effect) contributes significantly to the measured resistivities. Our results support the current theoretical idea that this interference-mechanism-induced resistivity varies with rho(0)T(2), where T is the temperature. Similar observation has also been made in disordered, conducting transition-metal oxide IrO2 thick films.