Microscopic origin of the Drude-Smith model

Abstract

The Drude-Smith model has been used extensively in fitting the THz conductivities of nanomaterials with carrier confinement on the mesoscopic scale. Here, we show that the conventional 'backscattering' explanation for the suppression of low-frequency conductivities in the Drude-Smith model is not consistent with a confined Drude gas of classical non-interacting electrons and we derive a modified Drude-Smith conductivity formula based on a diffusive restoring current. We perform Monte Carlo simulations of a model system and show that the modified Drude-Smith model reproduces the extracted conductivities without free parameters. This alternate route to the Drude-Smith model provides the popular formula with a more solid physical foundation and well-defined fit parameters.

18 pages, 8 figures, accepted to PRB, various changes and clarifications

References in corpus (5)

• Ultrafast single-nanowire multi-terahertz spectroscopy with sub-cycle temporal resolution
• THz-driven ultrafast spin-lattice scattering in amorphous metallic ferromagnets
• Self-phase modulation of a single-cycle terahertz pulse by nonlinear free-carrier response in a semiconductor
• Measurements of the Carrier Dynamics and Terahertz Response of Oriented Germanium Nanowires using Optical-Pump Terahertz-Probe Spectroscopy
• Temperature and frequency dependent optical properties of ultra-thin Au films

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• Snapshots of a light-induced metastable hidden phase driven by the collapse of charge order
• Probing Carrier Dynamics in sp${}^3$-Functionalized Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes with Time-Resolved Terahertz Spectroscopy
• Ultrafast photoconductivity and terahertz vibrational dynamics in double-helix SnIP nanowires
• Benchmarking vdW-DF first principle predictions against Coupled Electron-Ion Monte Carlo for high pressure liquid hydrogen
• Carrier transport and electron-lattice interactions of nonlinear optical crystals CdGeP${}_2$, ZnGeP${}_2$ and CdSiP${}_2$
• Intrinsic charge dynamics in high-Tc AFeAs(O,F) superconductors
• Nanoscale Terahertz Conductivity and Ultrafast Dynamics of Terahertz Plasmons in Periodic Arrays of Epitaxial Graphene Nanoribbons
• Optical and transport properties of NbN thin films revisited
• Conservative dielectric functions and electrical conductivities from the multicomponent Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook equation
• The Drude-Smith Model for Conductivity: de novo Derivation and Interpretation
• Ultrafast terahertz conductivity in epitaxial graphene nanoribbons: an interplay between photoexcited and secondary hot carriers
• Casimir-Lifshitz forces and plasmons in a structure of two dielectric rods: Green's function method of electrodynamics