English

Two-dimensional hydrodynamic viscous electron flow in annular Corbino rings

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2026-05-04 v2 Strongly Correlated Electrons

Abstract

The concept of fluidic viscosity is ubiquitous in our everyday life and for it to arise the fluidic medium must necessarily form a continuum where macroscopic properties can emerge. While a powerful concept for tangible liquids, hydrodynamic manifestation of collective flow in electronic systems such as two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) has only been shown recently to occur in graphene and GaAs/AlGaAs. Here, we present nonlocal electronic transport measurements in concentric annular rings formed in high-mobility GaAs/AlGaAs 2DEGs and the resulting data strongly suggest that viscous hydrodynamic flow can occur far away from the source-drain current region. Our conclusion of viscous electronic transport is further corroborated by simulations of the Navier-Stokes equations that are found to be in agreement with our measurements below 1K temperature. Most importantly, our work emphasizes the key role played by viscosity via electron-electron (e-e) interaction when hydrodynamic transport is restricted radially, and for which a priori should not have played a major role.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2405.17588,
  title  = {Two-dimensional hydrodynamic viscous electron flow in annular Corbino rings},
  author = {Sujatha Vijayakrishnan and Z. Berkson-Korenberg and J. Mainville and L. W. Engel and M. P. Lilly and K. W. West and L. N. Pfeiffer and G. Gervais},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.17588},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T16:42:49.827Z