Hall Coulomb drag induced by electron-electron skew scattering

TL;DR

This paper investigates how spin-orbit interaction and skew scattering in Weyl semimetals induce Hall-like Coulomb drag effects, revealing new microscopic mechanisms of anomalous Hall drag conductivity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theoretical framework for understanding Hall Coulomb drag driven by electron-electron skew scattering in Weyl semimetals.

Findings

Identification of perpendicular and parallel components of Coulomb drag force.

Demonstration of skew scattering's role in Hall-like friction.

Analysis of temperature dependence of Hall drag resistivity.

Abstract

We study the influence of spin-orbit interaction on electron-electron scattering in the Coulomb drag setup. We study a setup made of a time-reversal-symmetry-broken Weyl semimetal (WSM) layer and a normal metal layer. The interlayer drag force consists of two components. The first one is conventional and is parallel to the relative electronic boost velocity between the layers. This part of the drag tends to equilibrate the momentum distribution in the two layers, analogous to shear viscosity in hydrodynamics. In the WSM layer, the shift of the Fermi surface is not parallel to the electric field, due to skew scattering in the WSM. This induces a Hall current in the normal metal via the conventional component of the drag force. The second component of the drag force is perpendicular to the boost velocity in the Weyl semimetal and arises from interlayer e-e skew scattering, which results from two types of processes. The first process is an interference between electron-electron and electron-disorder scattering. The second process is due to the side jumps in electron-electron collisions in an external electric field. Both the parallel and perpendicular components of the drag are important for the anomalous Hall drag conductivity. On the other hand, for the Hall drag resistivity, the contribution from the parallel friction is partially cancelled in a broad temperature regime. This work provides insight into the microscopic mechanisms of Hall-like friction in electronic fluids.