Wave nature of conduction electrons in amorphous Co90Sc10 and Fe90Sc10 alloys

M Ghafari; D V Louzguine-Luzgin; W D Hutchison; T Feng; S J Campbell

doi:10.1088/1361-648X/aae505

Wave nature of conduction electrons in amorphous Co₉₀Sc₁₀ and Fe₉₀Sc₁₀ alloys

J Phys Condens Matter. 2018 Nov 14;30(45):455701. doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/aae505.

Authors

M Ghafari¹, D V Louzguine-Luzgin, W D Hutchison, T Feng, S J Campbell

Affiliation

¹ Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Herbert Gleiter Institute of Nanoscience, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 30265249
DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/aae505

Abstract

The resistivity of amorphous Fe₉₀Sc₁₀ and Co₉₀Sc₁₀ alloys can be described well in terms of a simple model based on the wave character of electrons and their associated tunnelling over the temperature ranges ~1.9 K to 135 K and ~1.9 K to 12 K respectively. The extended range of agreement between experiment and theory for amorphous Fe₉₀Sc₁₀ is linked with its relatively small mean free path of [Formula: see text] = 0.32 nm, thus allowing electron waves to tunnel between clusters. On the other hand the restricted region of tunnelling of electron waves for amorphous Co₉₀Sc₁₀ alloys is linked with its relatively large mean free path of [Formula: see text] = 0.48 nm which restricts the ability for tunnelling between clusters while enabling electron waves to tunnel between different regions with a cluster.