Effects of weak localization of electrons in the conductivity of gold films irradiated with argon ions

The effects of weak localization and electron–electron interaction in the conductivity of vacuum-deposited gold thin films (thickness L ⩽ nm) before and after irradiation with argon ions at energies 0.5–3.5 keV are investigated. The influence of irradiation (at fluences up to ≃ 8 · 1015cm−2) is essentially to decrease the thickness of the films and to intensify disorder in the crystal lattice. The temperature and magnetic-field dependences of the quantum corrections Δσ to the conductivity of the films are measured at temperatures 0.5 K ⩽ T ⩽ 50 K and in magnetic fields up to 20 kOe. These dependences are processed numerically to determine the rates of inelastic, spin–orbit, and spin–spin relaxation of electrons. The spin–orbit relaxation rates in the investigated films are observed to decrease as the degree of disorder is intensified by ion irradiation. It is shown that this behavior (which appears, at first glance, to contradict the existing notion) is possible in thin films with a decrease in the mean free path if the predominant contribution to spin–orbit scattering is from the surface scattering of electrons.