Fourteen years of quantum interference in disordered metals

Abstract

The understanding of the nature of quantum interference in disordered conductors gave the strong impulse for investigation of disordered systems. There were explained a lot of old puzzles in physics of conductors (e.g. anomalous temperature dependence on resistivity and different kinetic effects, the negative magnetoresistance etc.) and discovered new attractive phenomena. Such effects as oscillating effects in multiconnected systems, universal conductance fluctuations, local fluctuating currents in conductors have been converted in new branches of physics of disordered metals. The development of this new physics during the last years will be discussed.It is a great pleasure for me to talk today on behalf of my friends and colleagues. I would like to show the schematic picture where I tried to sketch the basis and development of electron coherence and interference phenomena in disordered conductors. The main basis of all this field of metal physics is the Anderson–Mott transition in disordered systems. This transition separates all substances on two groups – metals and dielectrics. Three trees grow on this basis now on the metal side: the weak localization, interaction effects and mesoscopics.