Imaging phonon-mediated hydrodynamic flow in WTe2

TL;DR

This study visualizes and analyzes hydrodynamic electron flow in tungsten ditelluride, revealing phonon-mediated interactions and temperature-dependent behavior, advancing understanding of electron hydrodynamics in semimetals.

Contribution

It provides the first imaging of hydrodynamic electron flow in WTe2 and identifies phonons as the main mediators of electron interactions in this material.

Findings

Hydrodynamic flow observed in WTe2 via magnetic field imaging.

Strongest hydrodynamic effects at around 20 K.

Electron-electron interactions mainly mediated by phonons.

Abstract

In the presence of interactions, electrons in condensed-matter systems can behave hydrodynamically, exhibiting phenomena associated with classical fluids, such as vortices and Poiseuille flow. In most conductors, electron-electron interactions are minimized by screening effects, hindering the search for hydrodynamic materials; however, recently, a class of semimetals has been reported to exhibit prominent interactions. Here we study the current flow in the layered semimetal tungsten ditelluride by imaging the local magnetic field using a nitrogen-vacancy defect in a diamond. We image the spatial current profile within three-dimensional tungsten ditelluride and find that it exhibits non-uniform current density, indicating hydrodynamic flow. Our temperature-resolve current profile measurements reveal a non-monotonic temperature dependence, with the strongest hydrodynamic effects at approximately 20 K. We also report ab initio calculations showing that electron-electron interactions are not explained by the Coulomb interaction alone, but are predominantly mediated by phonons. This provides a promising avenue in the search for hydrodynamic flow and prominent electron interactions in high-carrier-density materials.