Energy Dependence of Quasi-Particle Relaxation in a Disordered Fermi Liquid

Abstract

A spectroscopic method is applied to measure the inelastic quasi-particle relaxation rate in a disordered Fermi liquid. The quasi-particle relaxation rate, $\gamma$ is deduced from the magnitude of fluctuations in the local density of states, which are probed using resonant tunneling through a localized impurity state. We study its dependence on the excitation energy $E$ measured from the Fermi level. In a disordered metal (heavily doped GaAs) we find $\gamma \propto E^{3/2}$ within the experimentally accessible energy interval, in agreement with the Altshuler-Aronov theory for electron-electron interactions in diffusive conductors.