Electron-electron scattering in conducting materials

Abstract

Recent developments are reviewed in the theory and measurement of electron-electron scattering and its contribution to the electrical and thermal resistivities for different types of conducting materials, such as extremely impure metals, one-dimensional and two-dimensional conductors, the simple metals, transition metals, semimetals, organic conductors and the A15 compounds. The discussion includes the following topics: quantum corrections to the Fermi-liquid theory of electron-electron scattering (EES) due to static disorder, the effect of the dimensionality of the system on EES, the measurement and the calculation of the EES contribution to the resistivity of metals, the observed sample dependence of EES for the simple metals, the effect of EES on electron-surface scattering for thin wires, the contribution of EES to the anomalous surface impedance and to the optical relaxation time and the effect of a magnetic field on EES. Comparison is made between theory and recent experimental data for each of these topics.