METALLIC TRANSPORT-PROPERTIES OF AMORPHOUS NICKEL-SILICON FILMS

Transport properties including conductivity and magnetoconductance hav e been measured for amorphous nickel-silicon films. This study focuses on metallic amorphous a-NixSi1-x films, located just above the metal- insulator transition (MIT). Using various techniques, the MIT was iden tified. Electron-electron interactions dominated the conductivity, whe re sigma approximate to sigma(0) + CT0.55. Strong spin-orbit scatterin g was important in the weak-localization contribution to the magnetoco nductance data for the metallic films. The inelastic scattering time w as extracted from the magnetoconductance data. The low-temperature mag netoconductance data versus Ni content x exhibited a negative maximum just above the critical concentration x(c), suggesting another techniq ue for identifying the MIT.