Metallic transport properties of amorphous nickel - silicon films

Abstract

Transport properties including conductivity and magnetoconductance have been measured for amorphous nickel - silicon films. This study focuses on metallic amorphous films, located just above the metal - insulator transition (MIT). Using various techniques, the MIT was identified. Electron - electron interactions dominated the conductivity, where . Strong spin - orbit scattering was important in the weak-localization contribution to the magnetoconductance data for the metallic films. The inelastic scattering time was extracted from the magnetoconductance data. The low-temperature magnetoconductance data versus Ni content x exhibited a negative maximum just above the critical concentration , suggesting another technique for identifying the MIT.