1997/10/10 by P. Mohanty, E. M. Q. Jariwala, R. A. Webb · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.78.3366
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 3366 (1997) · 4 pages, 4 figures & 1 table
arxiv created 1997/10/10 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
We present measurements of the phase coherence time τϕ in six quasi-1D Au wires and clearly show that τϕ is temperature independent at low temperatures. We suggest that zero-point fluctuations of the intrinsic electromagnetic environment are responsible for the observed saturation of τϕ. We introduce a new functional form for the temperature dependence and present the results of a calculation for the saturation value of τϕ. This explains the observed temperature dependence of our samples as well as many 1D and 2D systems reported to date.