Electron-phonon origins of unconventional resistivity in moderately correlated perovskite oxides

Abstract

Transition-metal perovskite oxides exhibit moderately correlated metallic phases, several of which exhibit a $T^2$ resistivity scaling up to temperatures far exceeding the regime where Fermi-liquid electron-electron scattering is expected to dominate. Some of these materials, such as SrMoO${}_3$, also exhibit unexplained ultra-low room-temperature resistivity. We demonstrate that in SrMoO${}_3$, SrWO${}_3$, SrTaO${}_3$, SrNbO${}_3$, and SrVO${}_3$ electron-phonon scattering results in quadratic-scaling resistivity due to the shape of the Fermi surface and the thermal activation of optical phonons. We also reveal that the origin of the low resistivity of SrMoO${}_3$ is an overall low electron-phonon coupling strength, and identify SrWO${}_3$ and SrTaO${}_3$ as other possible low-resistivity oxides. Additionally, we find that the strength of electron-phonon coupling is sensitive to structural distortions, energies of optical phonons, and the treatment of electronic correlations. This suggests design principles for finding other ultra-high conductivity transition-metal oxides, and has significant implications for theoretical interpretation of direct-current resistivity in transition-metal oxides and beyond.

References in corpus (10)

• JDFTx: software for joint density-functional theory
• Impact of the electron-electron correlation on phonon dispersions: failure of LDA and GGA functionals in graphene and graphite
• Dynamical mean-field theory using Wannier functions: a flexible route to electronic structure calculations of strongly correlated materials
• The properties of ultrapure delafossite metals
• Electron-Phonon Coupling from $\text{Ab Initio}$ Linear-Response Theory within the $GW$ Method: Correlation-Enhanced Interactions and Superconductivity in Ba${}_{1-x}$K${}_x$BiO${}_3$
• Phoebe: a High-Performance Framework for Solving Phonon and Electron Boltzmann Transport Equations
• Electron-Phonon Coupling and Electron-Phonon Scattering in SrVO${}_3$
• Respective Roles of Electron-Phonon and Electron-Electron Interactions in the Transport and Quasiparticle Properties of SrVO${}_3$
• Electronic structure of the highly conductive perovskite oxide SrMoO${}_3$
• Fermi-Liquid $T^2$ Resistivity: Dynamical Mean-Field Theory Meets Experiment