Electron-phonon dephasing time due to the quasistatic scattering potential in metallic glass CuZrAl

Abstract

We have measured the electron-phonon scattering time in the metallic glass CuZrAl between 0.37 and 16 K, using the weak-localization magnetoresistance. The electron dephasing rate reveals a T-2 temperature dependence for almost two decades of temperature and is in good quantitative agreement with the theory considering the interference of electron-phonon and elastic electron scattering mechanisms in the presence of quasielastic scattering potential. In addition, this result demonstrates that the Pippard ineffectiveness condition for electron-phonon scattering is not applicable to amorphous alloys that comprise atoms with considerably different atomic masses.