English

Distinguishing viscous, ballistic, and diffusive current flows in anisotropic metals

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2021-11-22 v2

Abstract

We show that in anisotropic Fermi liquids where momentum-conserving scattering is much faster than momentum-relaxing scattering processes, local imaging of the electric current flow patterns can cleanly distinguish between ballistic, viscous and ohmic flow patterns simultaneously (using a single image). We propose using multi-layer graphene-based heterostructures, including ABA trilayer graphene, as a natural experimental platform where an anisotropic ballistic-to-viscous crossover may be visible in near-term experiments. Such experiments could lead to more direct measurements of momentum-conserving scattering lengths in electronic Fermi liquids.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2107.01216,
  title  = {Distinguishing viscous, ballistic, and diffusive current flows in anisotropic metals},
  author = {Marvin Qi and Andrew Lucas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.01216},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

17 pages, 11 figures; minor revisions

R2 v1 2026-06-24T03:51:12.165Z