Journal
NATURE PHYSICS
Volume 17, Issue 11, Pages 1216-+Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41567-021-01341-w
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Funding
- ARO grant [W911NF-17-1-0023, W911NF-18-1-0316, W911NF-1-81-0206]
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundations EPiQS Initiative [GBMF4531]
- US Department of Energy (DOE), Basic Energy Sciences Office, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering [DE-SC0019300]
- NSF grant [DMR-1708688, DMR-1231319, ECS-0335765]
- STC Center for Integrated Quantum Materials
- Aspen Center of Physics - NSF grant [PHY-1607611]
- Army Research Office MURI (Ab-Initio Solid-State Quantum Materials) grant [W911NF-18-1-0431]
- Office of Naval Research grant on High-Tc Superconductivity at Oxide-Chalcogenide Interfaces [N00014-18-1-2691]
- Office of Science of the US Department of Energy [DE-AC02-05CH11231]
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation [GBMF8048]
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program [DGE-1745303]
- Department of Defense (DOD) through the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG) Program
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In this study, current flow in the layered semimetal tungsten ditelluride was investigated by imaging the local magnetic field, revealing non-uniform current density indicative of hydrodynamic flow, with the strongest effects observed around 20 K. Ab initio calculations suggest that electron-electron interactions are predominantly mediated by phonons rather than solely the Coulomb interaction, offering a promising avenue for the search for hydrodynamic flow and prominent electron interactions in high-carrier-density materials.
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.
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