Temperature variation of the time of inelastic electron relaxation in disordered bismuth films.

Abstract

The behavior of quantum corrections to magnetoconductivity associated with the effect of weak electron localization is studied on thin Bi films (\ensuremath{\simeq}100 \AA{} thick) in a temperature range of 0.3--10 K with the effect of electron overheating being realized. The temperature dependences of the time ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\tau}}}_{\mathit{e}\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{ph}}$ of electron-phonon energy relaxation are determined. The weakening of the electron-phonon interaction predicted for the case of the inequality ${\mathit{q}}_{\mathrm{ph}}$l1 that yields a so-called ``dirty limit'' (${\mathit{q}}_{\mathrm{ph}}$ is the thermal phonon wave vector, l is the electron mean free path) is observed. Two ways are used to realize the dirty limit: an artificial decrease in the mean free path l and a lowering of the temperature below the characteristic one, ${\mathit{T}}_{2}$=\ensuremath{\Elzxh}s/kl (s is the phonon velocity).