Abstract: Electrons moving in a conductor can transfer momentum to the lattice via collisions with impurities and boundaries, giving rise to a fluctuating mechanical stress tensor. The root-mean-squared momentum transfer per scattering event in a disordered metal (of dimension L greater than the mean free path l and screening length xi) is found to be reduced below the Fermi momentum by a factor of order l/L for shear fluctuations and (xi/L)^2 for pressure fluctuations. The excitation of an elastic bending mode by the shear fluctuations is estimated to fall within current experimental sensitivity for a nanomechanical oscillator.

Abstract: The temperature dependence of the resistance of films of Al, Be, and NbC with small values of the electron mean free path L=1.5– 10 nm has been measured at 4.2–300 K. The resistance of all the films contains a T^2 contribution that is proportional to the residual resistance; this contribution has been attributed to the interference between the elastic electron scattering and the electron-phonon scattering. Fitting the data to the theory of the electron-phonon-impurity interference „M. Yu. Reiser and A. V. Sergeev, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 92, 224 ~1987! @Sov. Phys. JETP 65, 1291 ~1987!#…, we obtain constants of nteraction of the electrons with transverse phonons, and estimate the contribution of this interaction to the electron dephasing rate in thin films of Au, Al, Be, Nb, and NbC. Our estimates are in a good agreement with the experimental data on the inelastic electronphonon scattering in these films. This indicates that the interaction of electrons with transverse phonons controls the electron-phonon relaxation rate in thin-metal films over a broad temperature range.