$T-$linear resistivity from magneto-elastic scattering: application to PdCrO$_2$

TL;DR

This paper investigates the origin of T-linear resistivity in PdCrO2, attributing it to magneto-elastic scattering involving electrons, local moments, and phonons, challenging traditional electron-phonon explanations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel electron-magnetoelastic scattering mechanism as the cause of T-linear resistivity in PdCrO2, contrasting it with related materials and ruling out electron-phonon interactions.

Findings

T-linear resistivity observed over a wide temperature range.

Electron-magnetoelastic interaction proposed as dominant scattering mechanism.

Contrast with PdCoO2 rules out electron-phonon interactions.

Abstract

An electronic solid with itinerant carriers and localized magnetic moments represents a paradigmatic strongly correlated system. The electrical transport properties associated with the itinerant carriers, as they scatter off these local moments, has been scrutinized across a number of materials. Here we analyze the transport characteristics associated with ultra-clean PdCrO$_2$ -- a quasi two-dimensional material consisting of alternating layers of itinerant Pd-electrons and Mott-insulating CrO$_2$ layers -- which shows a pronounced regime of $T-$linear resistivity over a wide-range of intermediate temperatures. By contrasting these observations to the transport properties in a closely related material PdCoO$_2$, where the CoO$_2$ layers are band-insulators, we can rule out the traditional electron-phonon interactions as being responsible for this interesting regime. We propose a previously ignored electron-magnetoelastic interaction between the Pd-electrons, the Cr local-moments and an out-of-plane phonon as the main scattering mechanism that leads to the significant enhancement of resistivity and a $T-$linear regime in PdCrO$_2$ at temperatures far in excess of the magnetic ordering temperature. We suggest a number of future experiments to confirm this picture in PdCrO$_2$, as well as other layered metallic/Mott-insulating materials.