Abstract
We point out that the low temperature saturation of the electron phase decoherence time in a disordered conductor can be explained within the existing theory of weak localization provided the effect of quantum (high frequency) fluctuations is taken into account. Making use of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem we evaluate the quantum decoherence time, the crossover temperature below which thermal effects become unimportant, and the weak localization correction at . For 1D systems the latter is found to be , where is the number of conducting channels.
- Received 8 October 1997
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.1074
©1998 American Physical Society