Intrinsic Decoherence in Mesoscopic Systems
Intrinsic Decoherence in Mesoscopic Systems
We present measurements of the phase coherence time ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{\ensuremath{\varphi}}$ in six quasi-1D Au wires and clearly show that ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{\ensuremath{\varphi}}$ is temperature independent at low temperatures. We suggest that zero-point fluctuations of the phase coherent electrons are responsible for the observed saturation of ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{\ensuremath{\varphi}}$. We introduce a new functional form for …