Observation of the Nyquist phase-coherence time in thin Au-Pd wires

Abstract

We have studied the magnetoresistance of Au-Pd wires with diameters of order 500 A\r{}, in the temperature range 1--15 K. These measurements yield an electron phase-coherence time which varies with temperature as ${T}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}2/3}$. This temperature dependence suggests that we have observed the one-dimensional ``Nyquist'' time predicted theoretically by Altshuler and coworkers.