Yk. Lin et al., DIMENSIONAL CROSSOVER IN THE LOW-TEMPERATURE TRANSPORT-PROPERTIES OF ANNEALED AMORPHOUS FE SI MULTILAYERS/, Physical review. B, Condensed matter, 48(19), 1993, pp. 14608-14614
We present measurements of the low-temperature, T < 20 K, conductance,
G(T), of amorphous Fe/Si multilayers as a function of the temperature
at which they are annealed, T(ann). concentrate on two of the multila
yers which have 10 angstrom thick Fe layers and different Si layer thi
cknesses (32 and 40 angstrom). At low temperatures, the quantum correc
tions to G(T) are logarithmic indicating that the individual Fe layers
are in the two dimensional limit and are not coupled to one another.
Annealing the samples at, temperatures as low as 150-degrees-C drives
the interdiffusion of the Fe and Si layers. This interdiffusion leads
to stronger coupling between the conducting layers and a reduction in
their conductances. After an anneal at 350-degrees-C, the conductance
of the multilayer sample with the thinner Si layers rises sharply and
G(T) acquires a square-root temperature dependence. This behavior sign
als a crossover from two to three dimensional electronic transport.