No Arabic abstract
We investigate the impact of geometric constriction on the viscous flow of electron liquid through quantum point contacts. We provide analysis on the electric potential distribution given the setup of a slit configuration and use the method of conformal mapping to obtain analytical results. The potential profile can be tested and contrasted experimentally with the scanning tunneling potentiometry technique. We discuss intricate physics that underlies the Gurzhi effect, i.e. the enhancement of conductivity in the viscous flow, and calculate the temperature dependence of the momentum relaxation time as a result of impurity assisted quasi-ballistic interference effects. We caution that spatially inhomogeneous profiles of current in the Gurzhi crossover between Ohmic and Stokes flows might also appear in the non-hydrodynamic regime where non-locality plays an important role.
We observe a large negative magnetoresistance and a decrease of resistivity with increasing temperature, known as the Gurzhi effect, in a bilayer electron (BL) system formed by a wide GaAs quantum well. A hydrodynamic model for the single fluid transport parameters in narrow channels is employed and successfully describes our experimental findings. We find that the electron-electron scattering in the bilayer is more intensive in comparison with a single-band well (SW). The hydrodynamic assumption implies a strong dependence on boundary conditions, which can be characterized by slip length, describing the behavior of a liquid near the edge. Our results reveal that slip length in a BL is shorter than in a SW, and that the BL system goes deeper into the hydrodynamic regime. This is in agreement with the model proposed where the slip length is of the order of the electron-electron mean free path.
A hydrodynamic flow of electrons driven by an oscillating electric field is investigated. It is found that a double-peak profile of the electric current can appear. Such a profile originates from the interplay of viscous and inertial properties of the electron fluid as well as the boundary conditions. The nontrivial profile of the current results in a characteristic stray magnetic field where peaks could also occur in one of the field components. Analytical results are supported by numerical calculations in samples of different geometries such as straight channel, nozzle, and cavity and are found to be qualitatively insensitive to a specific form of the oscillating electric field. In addition, it is shown that nozzle and cavity provide an efficient means to locally enhance or reduce the fluid velocity.
Electron-electron (e-e) collisions can impact transport in a variety of surprising and sometimes counterintuitive ways. Despite strong interest, experiments on the subject proved challenging because of the simultaneous presence of different scattering mechanisms that suppress or obscure consequences of e-e scattering. Only recently, sufficiently clean electron systems with transport dominated by e-e collisions have become available, showing behavior characteristic of highly viscous fluids. Here we study electron transport through graphene constrictions and show that their conductance below 150 K increases with increasing temperature, in stark contrast to the metallic character of doped graphene. Notably, the measured conductance exceeds the maximum conductance possible for free electrons. This anomalous behavior is attributed to collective movement of interacting electrons, which shields individual carriers from momentum loss at sample boundaries. The measurements allow us to identify the conductance contribution arising due to electron viscosity and determine its temperature dependence. Besides fundamental interest, our work shows that viscous effects can facilitate high-mobility transport at elevated temperatures, a potentially useful behavior for designing graphene-based devices.
The electronic analog of the Poiseuille flow is the transport in a narrow channel with disordered edges that scatter electrons in a diffuse way. In the hydrodynamic regime, the resistivity decreases with temperature, referred to as the Gurzhi effect, distinct from conventional Ohmic behaviour. We studied experimentally an electronic analog of the Stokes flow around a disc immersed in a two-dimensional viscous liquid. The circle obstacle results in an additive contribution to resistivity. If specular boundary conditions apply, it is no longer possible to detect Poiseuille type flow and the Gurzhi effect. However, in flow through a channel with a circular obstacle, the resistivity decreases with temperature. By tuning the temperature, we observed the transport signatures of the ballistic and hydrodynamic regimes on the length scale of disc size. Our experimental results confirm theoretical predictions.
In this work we consider the hydrodynamic behavior of a coupled electron-phonon fluid, focusing on electronic transport under the conditions of strong phonon drag. This regime occurs when the rate of phonon equilibration due to e.g. umklapp scattering is much slower than the rate of normal electron-phonon collisions. Then phonons and electrons form a coupled out-of-equilibrium state where the total quasi-momentum of the electron-phonon fluid is conserved. A joint flow-velocity emerges as a collective hydrodynamic variable. We derive the equation of motion for this fluid from the underlying microscopic kinetic theory and elucidate its effective viscosity and thermal conductivity. In particular, we derive decay times of arbitrary harmonics of the distribution function and reveal its corresponding super-diffusive relaxation on the Fermi surface. We further consider several applications of this theory to magneto-transport properties in the Hall-bar and Corbino-disk geometries, relevant to experiments. In our analysis we allow for general boundary conditions that cover the crossover from no-slip to no-stress flows. Our approach also covers a crossover from the Stokes to the Ohmic regime under the conditions of the Gurzhi effect. In addition, we consider the frequency dependence of the surface impedance and non-equilibrium noise. For the latter, we notice that in the diffusive regime, a Fokker-Planck approximation, applied to the electron-phonon collision integral in the Eliashberg form, reduces it to a differential operator with Burgers nonlinearity. As a result, the non-equilibrium distribution function has a shock-wave structure in the energy domain. The consequence of this behavior for the Fano factor of the noise is investigated. In conclusion we discuss connections and limitations of our results in the context of recent electron-phonon drag measurements in Dirac and Weyl semimetals.