Resistance of quasi-one-dimensional wires

Abstract

The problem of resistance of thin wires is revisited. A formalism is developed for the localization regime to include inelastic scatterings of a given frequency of occurrence decided by the amount and nature of disorder capable of producing a certain number of tunneling states in the system. Questions about dependence on the bulk resistivity of the localization correction to resistance and the magnitude of this correction are addressed. The reason for the long standing discrepancies on these issues is found in the fact that Thouless’ [Phys. Rev. Lett. 39, 1167 (1977); Solid State Commun. 34, 683 (1980)] original results pertained to very high frequency of inelastic events while in the contemporary experiments this frequency should have been much lower. © 1999 The American Physical Society.