Probing interactions in mesoscopic gold wires

latex pothier.tex, 12 files, 15 pages in: Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Size Dependent Magnetic Scattering, Pesc, Hungary, May 28 - June 1st, 2000 Chandrasekhar V., Van Haesendonck C. eds (Kluwer, 2001) [SPEC-S00/083]We have measured in gold wires the energy exchange rate between quasiparticles, the phase coherence time of quasiparticles and the resistance vs. temperature, in order to probe the interaction processes which are relevant at low temperatures. We find that the energy exchange rate is higher than expected from the theory of electron-electron interactions, and that it has a different energy dependence. The dephasing time is constant at temperatures between 8 K and 0.5 K, and it increases below 0.5 K. The magnetoresistance is negative at large field scales, and the resistance decreases logarithmically with increasing temperatures, indicating the presence of magnetic impurities, probably Fe. Whereas resistivity and phase coherence measurements can be attributed to magnetic impurities, the question is raised whether these magnetic impurities could also mediate energy exchanges between quasiparticles