Transport properties in antiferromagnetic quantum Griffiths phases

TL;DR

This paper investigates how electron scattering by rare regions in antiferromagnetic quantum Griffiths phases causes singular temperature dependencies in electrical resistivity and other transport properties, with implications for experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a semi-classical Boltzmann approach to quantify transport anomalies caused by rare regions in quantum Griffiths phases, highlighting their impact on resistivity and related properties.

Findings

Resistivity varies as T^λ, with λ being the Griffiths exponent.

Singular contributions also appear in thermal resistivity, thermopower, and Peltier coefficient.

Comparison with experimental data suggests new directions for experimental verification.

Abstract

We study the electrical resistivity in the quantum Griffiths phase associated with the antiferromagnetic quantum phase transition in a metal. The resistivity is calculated by means of the semi-classical Boltzmann equation. We show that the scattering of electrons by locally ordered rare regions leads to a singular temperature dependence. The rare-region contribution to the resistivity varies as $T^\lambda$ with temperature $T,$ where the $\lambda$ is the usual Griffiths exponent which takes the value zero at the critical point and increases with distance from criticality. We find similar singular contributions to other transport properties such as thermal resistivity, thermopower and the Peltier coefficient. We also compare our results with existing experimental data and suggest new experiments.