Imaging phonon-mediated hydrodynamic flow in WTe2
Imaging phonon-mediated hydrodynamic flow in WTe2
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DOI:
10.1038/s41567-021-01341-w
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发表时间:
2021-09-16
期刊:
影响因子:
19.6
通讯作者:
Yacoby, Amir
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Vool, Uri;Hamo, Assaf;Yacoby, Amir
In the presence of interactions, electrons in condensed-matter systems can behave hydrodynamically, exhibiting phenomena associated with classical fluids, such as vortices and Poiseuille flow(1-3). In most conductors, electron-electron interactions are minimized by screening effects, hindering the search for hydrodynamic materials; however, recently, a class of semimetals has been reported to exhibit prominent interactions(4,5). Here we study the current flow in the layered semimetal tungsten ditelluride by imaging the local magnetic field using a nitrogen-vacancy defect in a diamond. We image the spatial current profile within three-dimensional tungsten ditelluride and find that it exhibits non-uniform current density, indicating hydrodynamic flow. Our temperature-resolved current profile measurements reveal a non-monotonic temperature dependence, with the strongest hydrodynamic effects at approximately 20 K. We also report ab initio calculations showing that electron-electron interactions are not explained by the Coulomb interaction alone, but are predominantly mediated by phonons. This provides a promising avenue in the search for hydrodynamic flow and prominent electron interactions in high-carrier-density materials.