Sample Size Effects on the Spin Resonance of Conduction Electrons in Aluminium

Abstract

Abstract The CESR residual line widths of cold rolled aluminium foils and evaporated aluminium films have been measured at 9.27 GHz for samples of thickness 0.1 to 38 μn. An increase in line width with decrease in thickness is observed at low temperatures. This increase is attributed to spin scattering of the conduction electrons at the aluminium surface. Below 20 K, ϵ, the probability for an electron losing its spin memory on colliding with the surface, is found to be less than 2.3 × 10 −3 for foils and lies within the range 1.0 × 10 −4 to 1.9 × 10 −3 for films.