Sensitivity of the Conductance of a Disordered Metal to the Motion of a Single Atom: Implications for <span class="aps-inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mfrac><mrow><mn>1</mn></mrow><mrow><mi>f</mi></mrow></mfrac></math></span> Noise

Shechao Feng; Patrick A. Lee; A. Douglas Stone

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.1960

Sensitivity of the Conductance of a Disordered Metal to the Motion of a Single Atom: Implications for $\frac{1}{f}$ Noise

Shechao Feng, Patrick A. Lee, and A. Douglas Stone

Phys. Rev. Lett. 56, 1960 – Published 5 May 1986

Abstract

We show that the conductance of metals is sensitive to the motion of a single scattering center. At zero temperature and in two dimensions, the motion of one strong scattering center induces changes of the conductance of order $\frac{e^{2}}{h}$ , independent of sample size. We discuss the implications of this result for room-temperature $\frac{1}{f}$ noise in disordered metals and we predict an anomalous low-temperature $\frac{1}{f}$ noise in metallic glasses, due to two-level systems.