Mesoscopic finite-size effects of unconventional electron transport in PdCoO2

PdCoO2

Mesoscopic finite-size effects of unconventional electron transport in PdCoO2


ResearchScience

A wide range of unconventional transport phenomena has recently been observed in single-crystal delafossite metals. Here, we present a theoretical framework to elucidate electron transport using a combination of first-principles calculations and numerical modeling of the anisotropic Boltzmann transport equation. Using PdCoO2 as a model system, we study different microscopic electron and phonon scattering mechanisms and establish the mean free path hierarchy of quasiparticles at different temperatures. We treat the anisotropic Fermi surface explicitly to numerically obtain experimentally-accessible transport observables, which bridge between the “diffusive,” “ballistic,” and “hydrodynamic” transport regime limits. We illustrate that the distinction between the “quasiballistic” and “quasihydrodynamic” regimes is challenging and often needs to be quantitative in nature. From first-principles calculations, we populate the resulting transport regime plots and demonstrate how the Fermi surface orientation adds complexity to the observed transport signatures in micrometer-scale devices. Our work provides key insights into microscopic interaction mechanisms on open hexagonal Fermi surfaces and establishes their connection to the macroscopic electron transport in finite-size channels.

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QMAT Publications


Georgios Varnavides, Yaxian Wang, Philip J. W. Moll, Polina Anikeeva, and Prineha Narang

Phys. Rev. Materials6 045002 (2022)

8 April 2022

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.6.045002

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