On the evidence for electron-electron scattering in the electrical resistivity In.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report that a generalized Kohler’s rule, similar to that proposed by Jones and Sondheimer, holds for the magnetoresistance of very pure Indium. This provides a reliable method for extrapolating the resistivity at zero field, which shows clearly a 7 5 dependence with temperature and no detectable T2 term. Previously reported measurements by Garland and Bowers suggested that electrón—electron interactions can be detected in the transport properties of In, as seen by a T2 dependence at the zero field resistivity. They obtained this result by assuming the validity of Kohler’s rule in their extrapolation of the magnetoresistance to zero field. Our high precision measurements, which agree with later work by Garland and Bowers, show strong deviations from Kohler’s rule. If, nevertheless, the zero field resistivity is extrapolated from fields larger that Hc to H = 0 (by means of Kohler’s rule and with co- efficients obtained from measurements at one temperature higher than Tc ), then a strong spurious deviation from the T 5 law appears. This might be wrongly interpreted as due to electrón-electrón interactions.