Finite-size effects of electron transport in PdCoO${}_2$

Abstract

A wide range of unconventional transport phenomena have 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 PdCoO${}_2$ 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 distinction between the "quasi-ballistic", and "quasi-hydrodynamic" 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 micro-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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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Metallic delafossite thin films for unique device applications
• Plasmonic quantum nonlinear Hall effect in noncentrosymmetric 2D materials
• Unraveling the unusually high electrical conductivity of the delafossite metal PdCoO${}_2$
• Generalized Design Principles for Hydrodynamic Electron Transport in Anisotropic Metals
• Fully two-dimensional incommensurate charge modulation on the Pd-terminated polar surface of PdCoO2
• Accelerating analysis of Boltzmann equations using Gaussian mixture models: Application to quantum Bose-Fermi mixtures