Magnetoconductivity of AlPdRe quasicrystalline films

Magnetoconductivity (MC) and zero field conductivity have been measured at low temperatures in metallic and barely insulating AlPdRe quasicrystalline films. For a metallic film, both the magnetoconductivity and conductivity can be fitted well using the 3D weak localization (WL) and electron-electron interaction (EEI) theories. The AlPdRe films exhibit very strong spin-orbit scattering with τ_so ≈ 1.5 × 10^-13 s. Therefore, the inelastic scattering times can be directly extracted from the low field magnetoconductivity data taken at various temperatures, yielding τ_in(T) ≈ 1.6 × 10^-11 T^-1 s^-1. Using the fitting parameters extracted from the MC data, the zero field conductivity as a function of temperature can be described nicely using the WL and EEI theories. MC data and conductivity data obtained on barely insulating films below the metal-insulator transition cannot be explained in the framework of the WL theory.