Universal scaling of nonlocal and local resistance fluctuations in small wires

Abstract

Resistance fluctuations in small metal samples result from coherent transport of the carriers. The wave functions of the carriers extend into regions which are not accessible classically. We have directly measured the length dependence of the nonlocal magnetoresistance fluctuations in Sb and Au wires by studying regions of our samples separated from the classical current path by a distance L which varied from 3Lcphi down to 0.2Lcphi (where Lcphi is the phase coherence length for the carriers in the metal). These fluctuations decay exponentially with L/Lcphi. Measurements along the classical current paths scale more slowly with L/Lcphi than predicted by the analytical theory but are in agreement with numerical simulations. We have also studied the length dependence of the magnetic field correlation scale BC, and we find that it is in qualitative agreement with a recent model calculation that accounts for the voltage probes. © 1990 The American Physical Society.