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Electrons flow like a liquid

20.09.2017

In their latest experiments, scientists from the Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester have discovered conditions under which electrons moving through graphene behave in a very unusual way. This specific movement of electrons gives scientists a better understanding of the physical processes in electrically conductive materials, and in the near future, these same processes can be used to develop nanoelectronic circuits for fast and high-performance next-generation computer chips.

In most metals, electrical conductivity is limited by the number of defects in their crystal lattice, which cause electrons to scatter, hitting them like billiard balls. Therefore, graphene, due to its "two-dimensional" structure, conducts electricity much better than any metal. In addition, in some pure metals and other materials with an ordered crystal structure, including graphene, electrons can overcome distances of microns without scattering due to the so-called ballistic motion. The parameters of such motion determine the maximum possible electrical conductivity of the material, which is called Landauer's fundamental limit.

However, the data obtained during the experiments allowed scientists to conclude that the law that determines the fundamental Landauer limit is not observed in the graphene medium under certain conditions. And one very unusual mechanism is responsible for this, which is directly related to the relatively new field of physics called electron hydrodynamics (electron hydrodynamics).

The field of electron fluid dynamics emerged just last year after scientists from the University of Manchester and other scientific organizations showed that at a certain temperature of a material, electrons moving in it begin to collide with each other so often that the flow of electrons begins to flow like a liquid flow, having not the smallest coefficient of viscosity. And in new research, scientists have shown that the presence of this viscous "e-liquid" gives the material a higher electrical conductivity than the ballistic movement of electrons.

The phenomenon discovered by scientists is rather paradoxical. Indeed, during collisions of electrons, they interact and scatter, which, in theory, should weaken the electrical conductivity of the material. But the increase in the conductivity of the material occurs due to the fact that the electrons are divided into two conditional parts, like a stream of water flowing in a river. Those electrons that move in close proximity to the edges of the crystal lattice lose their momentum and slow down. But, at the same time, they act as a protection against collisions of electrons moving in the middle of the stream. And these electrons are already moving along a super-ballistic trajectory inside the "channel" created by the extreme electrons.

“We know from school physics that the more disordered the structure of a material, the greater its electrical resistance,” says Sir Andrew Game, “But in our case, the disorder caused by scattering due to electron collisions reduces, rather than increases, the electrical resistance of the material. In this case, the electrons begin to flow like a liquid and the speed of this liquid exceeds the speed of electrons with the same energy in vacuum.

The scientists conducted a series of experiments in which the conductivity of graphene was measured at various temperatures. Comparison of the conductivity of pure graphene and doped graphene, which has clear metallic conductive properties, allowed scientists to calculate with high accuracy a new physical quantity called viscous conductivity. And what is most remarkable, the collected experimental data practically coincided with the data obtained in the course of calculations of the corresponding mathematical models.

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