Electron-Phonon Coupling and Electron-Phonon Scattering in SrVO$_3$

TL;DR

This paper investigates the electron-phonon interactions and scattering mechanisms in SrVO$_3$, revealing the significant role of electron-phonon coupling and Fermi surface topology in its electronic properties, challenging simple electron-electron correlation models.

Contribution

It demonstrates that electron-phonon coupling and Fermi surface topology are crucial for understanding SrVO$_3$'s electronic behavior, extending insights to other metallic oxides.

Findings

Quadratic temperature dependence of inverse electron mobility.

Limitations of simple Fermi liquid models for SrVO$_3$.

Strong electron-phonon coupling influences transport and spectroscopic properties.

Abstract

Understanding the physics of strongly correlated electronic systems has been a central issue in condensed matter physics for decades. In transition metal oxides, strong correlations characteristic of narrow $d$ bands is at the origin of such remarkable properties as the Mott gap opening, enhanced effective mass, and anomalous vibronic coupling, to mention a few. SrVO$_3$, with V$^{4+}$ in a $3d^1$ electronic configuration is the simplest example of a 3D correlated metallic electronic system. Here, we focus on the observation of a (roughly) quadratic temperature dependence of the inverse electron mobility of this seemingly simple system, which is an intriguing property shared by other metallic oxides. The systematic analysis of electronic transport in SrVO$_3$ thin films discloses the limitations of the simplest picture of e-e correlations in a Fermi liquid; instead, we show that the quasi-2D topology of the Fermi surface and a strong electron-phonon coupling, contributing to dress carriers with a phonon cloud, play a pivotal role on the reported electron spectroscopic, optical, thermodynamic and transport data. The picture that emerges is not restricted to SrVO$_3$ but can be shared with other $3d$ and $4d$ metallic oxides.