Localization in thin copper films

Resistance measurements in zero magnetic field have been made on thin Cu films (30 to 500) between 1 to 100 K with the goal of determining the relevant scattering times. The elastic scattering time 0 is limited by the thickness d of the samples and is well described by 0=vFd. With the assumption that the inelastic scattering time i has a temperature dependence given by iT-P, then the high-temperature resistance data yielded P=1.9 0.3. These measurements also demonstrate that the localization phenomena extend to temperatures much greater than the temperature Tmin at which the resistance minimum occurs. At low temperatures in the thinnest films, deviations in the resistance from the logarithmic temperature dependence are observed; this effect is attributed to strong spin-orbit scattering which dominates the inelastic scattering at low temperatures (so<i).