Observation of strong electron dephasing in highly disordered Cu93Ge4Au3 thin films

In-depth analysis of anisotropic magnetoconductance in Bi2Se3thin films with electron-electron interaction corrections

A combination of out-of-plane (OOP) and in-plane (IP) magnetoconductance (MC) study in topological insulators (TI) is often used as an experimental technique to probe weak anti-localization (WAL) response of the topological surface states (TSSs). However, in addition to the above WAL response, weak localization (WL) contribution from conducting bulk states are also known to coexist and contribute to the overall MC; a study that has so far received limited attention. In this article, we accurately extract the above WL contribution by systematically analyzing the temperature and magnetic field dependency of conductivity in Bi₂Se₃films. For accurate analysis, we quantify the contribution of electron-electron interactions to the measured MC which is often ignored in the WAL studies. Moreover, we show that the WAL effect arising from the TSSs with finite penetration depth, for OOP and IP magnetic field can together explain the anisotropic magnetoconductance (AMC) and, thus, the investigated AMC study can serve as a useful technique to probe the parameters like phase coherence length and penetration depth that characterise the TSSs in 3D TIs. We also demonstrate that increase in bulk-disorder, achieved by growing the films on amorphous SiO₂substrate rather than on crystalline Al₂O₃(0001), can lead to stronger decoupling between the top and bottom surface states of the film.

Oxygen vacancy-driven orbital multichannel Kondo effect in Dirac nodal line metals IrO2 and RuO2

Strong electron correlations have long been recognized as driving the emergence of novel phases of matter. A well recognized example is high-temperature superconductivity which cannot be understood in terms of the standard weak-coupling theory. The exotic properties that accompany the formation of the two-channel Kondo (2CK) effect, including the emergence of an unconventional metallic state in the low-energy limit, also originate from strong electron interactions. Despite its paradigmatic role for the formation of non-standard metal behavior, the stringent conditions required for its emergence have made the observation of the nonmagnetic, orbital 2CK effect in real quantum materials difficult, if not impossible. We report the observation of orbital one- and two-channel Kondo physics in the symmetry-enforced Dirac nodal line (DNL) metals IrO₂ and RuO₂ nanowires and show that the symmetries that enforce the existence of DNLs also promote the formation of nonmagnetic Kondo correlations. Rutile oxide nanostructures thus form a versatile quantum matter platform to engineer and explore intrinsic, interacting topological states of matter.

Strong electron correlations may give rise to an unconventional metallic state accompanying non-magnetic Kondo scattering. Here, the authors report signatures of orbital one- and two-channel Kondo physics in Dirac nodal line metals RuO₂ and IrO₂ nanowires.

Two-Channel Kondo Physics due to As Vacancies in the Layered Compound ZrAs_{1.58}Se_{0.39}

We address the origin of the magnetic-field-independent -|A|T^{1/2} term observed in the low-temperature resistivity of several As-based metallic systems of the PbFCl structure type. For the layered compound ZrAs_{1.58}Se_{0.39}, we show that vacancies in the square nets of As give rise to the low-temperature transport anomaly over a wide temperature regime of almost two decades in temperature. This low-temperature behavior is in line with the nonmagnetic version of the two-channel Kondo effect, whose origin we ascribe to a dynamic Jahn-Teller effect operating at the vacancy-carrying As layer with a C_{4} symmetry. The pair-breaking nature of the dynamical defects in the square nets of As explains the low superconducting transition temperature T_{c}≈0.14  K of ZrAs_{1.58}Se_{0.39} compared to the free-of-vacancies homologue ZrP_{1.54}S_{0.46} (T_{c}≈3.7  K). Our findings should be relevant to a wide class of metals with disordered pnictogen layers.

Electronic conduction properties of indium tin oxide: single-particle and many-body transport

Indium tin oxide (Sn-doped In2O3-δ or ITO) is a very interesting and technologically important transparent conducting oxide. This class of material has been extensively investigated for decades, with research efforts mostly focusing on the application aspects. The fundamental issues of the electronic conduction properties of ITO from room temperature down to liquid-helium temperatures have rarely been addressed thus far. Studies of the electrical-transport properties over a wide range of temperature are essential to unravelling the underlying electronic dynamics and microscopic electronic parameters. In this topical review, we show that one can learn rich physics in ITO material, including the semi-classical Boltzmann transport, the quantum-interference electron transport, as well as the many-body Coulomb electron-electron interaction effects in the presence of disorder and inhomogeneity (granularity). To fully reveal the numerous avenues and unique opportunities that the ITO material has provided for fundamental condensed matter physics research, we demonstrate a variety of charge transport properties in different forms of ITO structures, including homogeneous polycrystalline thin and thick films, homogeneous single-crystalline nanowires and inhomogeneous ultrathin films. In this manner, we not only address new physics phenomena that can arise in ITO but also illustrate the versatility of the stable ITO material forms for potential technological applications. We emphasize that, microscopically, the novel and rich electronic conduction properties of ITO originate from the inherited robust free-electron-like energy bandstructure and low-carrier concentration (as compared with that in typical metals) characteristics of this class of material. Furthermore, a low carrier concentration leads to slow electron-phonon relaxation, which in turn causes the experimentally observed (i) a small residual resistance ratio, (ii) a linear electron diffusion thermoelectric power in a wide temperature range 1-300 K and (iii) a weak electron dephasing rate. We focus our discussion on the metallic-like ITO material.

Quantum-interference transport through surface layers of indium-doped ZnO nanowires

We have fabricated indium-doped ZnO (IZO) nanowires (NWs) and carried out four-probe electrical-transport measurements on two individual NWs with geometric diameters of ≈70 and ≈90 nm in a wide temperature T interval of 1-70 K. The NWs reveal overall charge conduction behavior characteristic of disordered metals. In addition to the T dependence of resistance R, we have measured the magnetoresistance (MR) in magnetic fields applied either perpendicular or parallel to the NW axis. Our R(T) and MR data in different T intervals are consistent with the theoretical predictions of the one- (1D), two- (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) weak-localization (WL) and the electron-electron interaction (EEI) effects. In particular, a few dimensionality crossovers in the two effects are observed. These crossover phenomena are consistent with the model of a 'core-shell-like structure' in individual IZO NWs, where an outer shell of thickness t (~15-17 nm) is responsible for the quantum-interference transport. In the WL effect, as the electron dephasing length Lφ gradually decreases with increasing T from the lowest measurement temperatures, a 1D-to-2D dimensionality crossover takes place around a characteristic temperature where Lφ approximately equals d, an effective NW diameter which is slightly smaller than the geometric diameter. As T further increases, a 2D-to-3D dimensionality crossover occurs around another characteristic temperature where Lφ approximately equals t (<d). In the EEI effect, a 2D-to-3D dimensionality crossover takes place when the thermal diffusion length LT progressively decreases with increasing T and approaches t. However, a crossover to the 1D EEI effect is not seen because LT < d even at T = 1 K in our IZO NWs. Furthermore, we explain the various inelastic electron scattering processes which govern Lφ. This work demonstrates the complex and rich nature of the charge conduction properties of group-III metal-doped ZnO NWs. This work also strongly indicates that the surface-related conduction processes are essential to doped semiconductor nanostructures.

Direct observation of electron dephasing due to inelastic scattering from defects in weakly disordered AuPd wires

To identify and investigate the mechanisms of electron-phonon (e-ph) relaxation in weakly disordered metallic conductors, we measure the electron dephasing rate in a series of suspended and supported 15-nm thick AuPd wires. In a wide temperature range, from ∼8  K to above 20 K, the e-ph interaction dominates in the dephasing processes. The corresponding relaxation rate reveals a quadratic temperature dependence, τ(e-ph)(-1)=A(ep)T2, where A(ep)≈5×10(9)  K(-2)  s(-1) is essentially the same for all samples studied. Our observations are shown to be in good agreement with the theory which predicts that, even in weakly disordered metallic structures at moderately low temperatures, the major mechanism of the e-ph relaxation is the electron scattering from vibrating defects and impurities.