ELECTRICAL-RESISTIVITY OF AMORPHOUS FE90-XCOXZR10 ALLOYS - WEAK-LOCALIZATION AND SPIN FLUCTUATION EFFECTS

The results of electrical resistivity (rho) measurements performed on amorphous Fe90-xCoxZr10 alloys in the temperature range 77 K to 350 K are presented and discussed in the light of existing theoretical model s. Besides unambiguously identifying weak localization, electron-phono n scattering, electron-magnon scattering and scattering of conduction electrons from spin fluctuations as main mechanisms governing the temp erature dependence of rho within the temperature range covered in this work, the present results demonstrate that inelastic scattering of el ectrons from longitudinal phonons provides the most effective dephasin g mechanism. Weak localization effects basically account for the negat ive temperature coefficient of rho observed for temperatures below the minimum and the inelastic scattering time or dephasing time increases rapidly with Co concentration. Spin fluctuation effects show up clear ly for temperatures in the vicinity of the Curie temperature through a contribution to rho(T) which varies with temperature as T-5/3. That s pin fluctuations get suppressed by Co substitution is strongly indicat ed by a continuous decline of the coefficient of the T-5/3 term with i ncreasing Co concentration. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.