Impact of short-range order on transport properties of the two-dimensional metal PdCrO$_2$

TL;DR

This study investigates how short-range magnetic order influences the transport properties of PdCrO₂, revealing complex behaviors that challenge simple models and have implications for understanding pseudogap phenomena in cuprates.

Contribution

It demonstrates that incorporating critical antiferromagnetic fluctuations is essential to explain transport anomalies in PdCrO₂, advancing the understanding of correlated electron systems.

Findings

Non-monotonic Hall effect temperature dependence

Sign change in Nernst effect above magnetic transition

Coherent scattering by magnetic fluctuations explains transport features

Abstract

We study the Hall and Nernst effects across the antiferromagnetic transition that reconstructs the quasi-2D Fermi surface of the metallic local moment antiferromagnet PdCrO$_2$. We show that non- monotonic temperature dependence in the Hall effect and a sign change in the Nernst effect above the ordering temperature cannot be understood within a simple single-band transport model. The inclusion of coherent scattering by critical antiferromagnetic fluctuations can qualitatively account for these features in the transport coefficients. We discuss the implications of this for the pseudogap phase of the cuprate superconductors, which have a similar Fermi surface and where the same transport signatures are observed.