Localization and electron-interaction effects in metallic glasses

Magnetoresistance measurements have been made on amorphous ${\mathrm{Lu}}_{75}$ ${\mathrm{Pd}}_{25}$ and ${\mathrm{Lu}}_{75}$ ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{25}$ alloys. In the absence of contributions from spin-splitting interaction (because of the high spin-orbit scattering rate 1/${\tau }_{\mathrm{so}\mathrm{\simeq }{10}^{14}}$ ${\mathrm{s}}^{\mathrm{-}1}$) and superconducting fluctuations, direct comparison of experimental data with three-dimensional weak localization theory can be made. Our results follow the trend predicted by theory, but are about 20% larger. Interaction effects with a negative screening parameter can explain both the discrepancy and the order of magnitude of resistivity ρ(T). We obtain the inelastic scattering time ${\tau }_i$(T)≃2×${10}^{\mathrm{-}10}$ $T^{\mathrm{-}2}$ s which can be attributed to electron-phonon processes in disordered metals, according to the theory of Bergmann and Takayama. Prior results obtained for amorphous ${\mathrm{Zr}}_{40}$ ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{60}$ are discussed only qualitatively as this alloy does exhibit superconducting fluctuations above 0.5 K.