Negative Nonlocal Resistance Research Articles

Negative nonlocal vicinity resistance of viscous flow in a two-dimensional electron system

We perform a quantum transport study of Hall viscous liquid in multiterminal narrow Hallbar devices of a high-mobility two-dimensional electron system (2DES) in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. In the nonlocal transport measurements of vicinity geometry under magnetic fields $(B)$, we observe that the absolute negative magnetoresistance $({R}_{xx})$ value $({R}_{\text{min}}<0)$ and the corresponding magnetic field $({B}_{\text{min}})$ are both inversely proportional to the adjacent Hallbar arm distance $(L)$. The occurrence of negative resistance is dependent on the characteristic lengths of the devices and the electron flow direction under $B$-fields. The minimal resistance ${R}_{\text{min}}$ occurs when the cyclotron radius ${R}_{C}$ approximates $L$. Multiples of high-order ($n\mathrm{th}$-order) ${R}_{\text{min},n}$'s persist from low to high magnetic fields in a large sample size of $L=5\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$. Our experimental study reveals the transport behaviors in the vicinity regime, where the negative resistances depict viscous electronic flows in the high-mobility 2DES. In addition, the negative and high-order minimal resistances expand to a magnetic field of several kGs.

Numerical study of negative nonlocal resistance and backflow current in a ballistic graphene system

Besides the giant peak of the nonlocal resistance $R_{NL}$, an anomalous negative value of $R_{NL}$ has been observed in graphene systems, while its formation mechanism is not quite understood yet. In this work, utilizing the non-equilibrium Green's function method, we calculate the local-current flow in an H-shaped non-interacting graphene system locating in the ballistic regime. Similar to the previous conclusions made from the viscous regime, the numerical results show that a local-current vortex appears between the nonlocal measuring terminals, which induces a backflow current and a remarkable negative voltage drop at the probe. Specifically, the stronger the vortex exhibits, the more negative $R_{NL}$ manifests. Besides, a spin-orbital coupling is added as an additional tool to study this exotic vortex, which is not a driving force for the arising vortex at all. Moreover, a breakdown of the nonlocal Wiedemann-Franz law is obtained in this ballistic system, and two experimental criteria are further provided to confirm the existence of this exotic vortex. Notably, a discussion is made that the vortex actually originates from the collision between the flowing current and the boundaries, due to the long electron mean free path and the consequent ballistic transport caused by the specific linear spectrum of graphene.

Hydrodynamic and ballistic AC transport in two-dimensional Fermi liquids

Electron transport in clean 2D systems with weak electron-phonon (e-ph) coupling can transition from an Ohmic to a ballistic or a hydrodynamic regime. The ballistic regime occurs when electron-electron (e-e) scattering is weak whereas the hydrodynamic regime arises when this scattering is strong. Despite this difference, we find that vortices and a negative nonlocal resistance believed to be quintessentially hydrodynamic are equally characteristic of the ballistic regime. These non-Ohmic regimes cannot be distinguished in DC transport without changing experimental conditions. Further, as our kinetic calculations show, the hydrodynamic regime in DC transport is highly fragile and is wiped out by even sparse disorder and e-ph scattering. We show that microwave-frequency AC sources by contrast readily excite hydrodynamic modes with current vortices that are robust to disorder and e-ph scattering. Indeed, current reversals in the non-Ohmic regimes occur via repeated vortex generation and mergers through reconnections, as in classical 2D fluids. Crucially, AC sources give rise to strong correlations across the entire device that unambiguously distinguish all regimes. These correlations in the form of nonlocal current-voltage and voltage-voltage phases directly check for the presence of a nonlocal current-voltage relation signifying the onset of non-Ohmic behavior as well as also for the dominance of bulk interactions, needed to confirm the presence of a hydrodynamic regime. We use these probes to demarcate all regimes in an experimentally realizable graphene device and find that the ballistic regime has a much larger extent in parameter space than the hydrodynamic regime.

Particle Collisions and Negative Nonlocal Response of Ballistic Electrons.

An electric field that builds in the direction against current, known as negative nonlocal resistance, arises naturally in viscous flows and is thus often taken as a telltale of this regime. Here, we predict negative resistance for the ballistic regime, wherein the ee collision mean free path is greater than the length scale at which the system is being probed. Therefore, negative resistance alone does not provide strong evidence for the occurrence of the hydrodynamic regime; it must thus be demoted from the rank of irrefutable evidence to that of a mere forerunner. Furthermore, we find that negative response is log enhanced in the ballistic regime by the physics related to the seminal Dorfman-Cohen log divergence due to memory effects in the kinetics of dilute gases. The ballistic regime therefore offers a unique setting for exploring these interesting effects due to electron interactions.

Nonlocal transport in Weyl semimetals in the hydrodynamic regime

The nonlocal response of chiral electron fluid in a semi-infinite Weyl semimetal slab with the electric current source and drain attached to its surface is studied by using the consistent hydrodynamic framework. It is found that the Chern-Simons terms lead to a spatial asymmetry of the electron flow and the electric field. Most remarkably, the corresponding topological terms could result in a negative nonlocal resistance. In addition, they give rise to the anomalous Hall current, which is sensitive to the spatial distribution of the electric field in the plane of the contacts and depends on the orientation of the chiral shift.

Vorticity-induced negative nonlocal resistance in a viscous two-dimensional electron system

We report non-local electrical measurements in a mesoscopic size two-dimensional (2D) electron gas in a GaAs quantum well in a hydrodynamic regime. Viscous electric flow is expected to be dominant when electron-electron collisions occur more often than the impurity or phonon scattering events. We observe a negative nonlocal resistance and attribute it to the formation of whirlpools in the electron flow. We use the different nonlocal transport geometries and compare the results with a theory demonstrating the significance of hydrodynamics in mesoscopic samples.

Nonlocal superconducting correlations in graphene in the quantum Hall regime

We study Andreev processes and nonlocal transport in a three-terminal graphene-superconductor hybrid system under a quantizing perpendicular magnetic field [G.-H. Lee et al., Nature Phys. 13, 693 (2017)]. We find that the amplitude of the crossed Andreev reflection (CAR) processes crucially depends on the orientation of the lattice. By employing Landauer-B\"{u}ttiker scattering theory, we find that CAR is generally very small for a zigzag edge, while for an armchair edge it can be larger than the normal transmission, thereby resulting in a negative nonlocal resistance. In the case of an armchair edge and with a wide superconducting region (as compared to the superconducting coherence length), CAR exhibits large oscillations as a function of the magnetic field due to interference effects. This results in sign changes of the nonlocal resistance.

Electron hydrodynamics dilemma: Whirlpools or no whirlpools

In highly viscous electron systems such as, for example, high quality graphene above liquid nitrogen temperature, a linear response to applied electric current becomes essentially nonlocal, which can give rise to a number of new and counterintuitive phenomena including negative nonlocal resistance and current whirlpools. It has also been shown that, although both effects originate from high electron viscosity, a negative voltage drop does not principally require current backflow. In this work, we study the role of geometry on viscous flow and show that confinement effects and relative positions of injector and collector contacts play a pivotal role in the occurrence of whirlpools. Certain geometries may exhibit backflow at arbitrarily small values of the electron viscosity, whereas others require a specific threshold value for whirlpools to emerge.

Electron viscosity, current vortices and negative nonlocal resistance in graphene

Quantum-critical states of diverse strongly correlated systems are predicted to feature universal collision-dominated transport resembling that of viscous fluids. However, investigation of these phenomena has been hampered by the lack of known macroscopic signatures of the hydrodynamic regime at criticality. Here we identify vorticity as such a signature and link it with an easily verifiable striking macroscopic transport behavior. Produced by the viscous flow, vorticity can drive electric current against an applied field, resulting in a negative nonlocal voltage. We argue that the latter may play the same role for the viscous regime as zero electrical resistance does for superconductivity. Besides offering a diagnostic of viscous transport which distinguishes it from ohmic currents, the sign-changing electrical response affords a robust tool for directly measuring the viscosity-to-resistivity ratio. The strongly interacting electron-hole plasma in high-mobility graphene provides a bridge between quantum-criticality and the wealth of fluid mechanics phenomena.

Novel non-local effects in three-terminal hybrid devices with quantum dot.

We predict non-local effect in the three-terminal hybrid device consisting of the quantum dot (QD) tunnel coupled to two normal and one superconducting reservoirs. It manifests itself as the negative non-local resistance and results from the competition between the ballistic electron transfer (ET) and the crossed Andreev scattering (CAR). The effect is robust both in the linear and non-linear regimes. In the latter case the screening of charges and the long-range interactions play significant role. We show that sign change of the non-local conductance depends on the subgap Shiba/Andreev states, and it takes place even in absence of the Coulomb interactions. The effect is large and can be experimentally verified using the four probe setup. Since the induced non-local voltage changes sign and magnitude upon varying the gate potential and/or coupling of the quantum dot to the superconducting lead, such measurement could hence provide a controlled and precise method to determine the positions of the Shiba/Andreev states. Our predictions ought to be contrasted with non-local effects observed hitherto in the three-terminal planar junctions where the residual negative non-local conductance has been observed at large voltages, related to the Thouless energy of quasiparticles tunneling through the superconducting slab.

Local and nonlocal conductance enhancement due to Cooper pair splitting

Enhanced local conductance due to Andreev reflection is well known for high transparency Normal metal-Superconductor (NS) interface. For low transparency NS junctions, observation of two-electron tunneling contribution (enhanced Andreev reflection) to current was also reported previously. In our recent work [J Wei and V Chandrasekhar, Nat. Phys. 6, 494 (2010)], for a three-terminal Cooper pair splitter geometry, i.e., with two closely placed NS junctions sharing the same S terminal, we were able do a 2D scan of both local and nonlocal differential resistance, since for our ideal tunneling junctions there is little current redistribution (flow from one normal-metal lead to the other via the superconducting lead). In contrast to previous 1D nonlocal resistance measurements, 2D scans clearly show regime with pronounced contribution of the nonlocal processes to both local and nonlocal conductance enhancement. The enhanced local conductance and negative nonlocal resistance are consistent with enhanced Cooper pair splitting, and dynamical Coulomb blockade could be the origin of this enhancement.

Positive noise cross-correlation in hybrid superconducting and normal-metal three-terminal devices

Nonlocal entanglement is crucial for quantum information processes. While nonlocal entanglement has been realized for photons, it is much more difficult to demonstrate for electrons. One approach that has been proposed is to use hybrid superconducting/normal-metal devices, where a Cooper pair splits into spin-entangled electrons in two spatially separated normal-metal leads. This process of nonlocal Andreev reflection is predicted to lead to a negative nonlocal resistance and positive current-current correlation. By cross-correlation measurements as well as measurements of the local and nonlocal resistance, we present here experimental evidence showing that by independently controlling the energy of electrons at the superconductor/normal-metal interfaces, nonlocal Andreev reflction, the signature of spin-entanglement, can be maximized.

Negative Nonlocal Resistance in Mesoscopic Gold Hall Bars: Absence of the Giant Spin Hall Effect

We report the observation of negative nonlocal resistances in multiterminal mesoscopic gold Hall bar structures whose characteristic dimensions are larger than the electron mean-free path. Our results can only be partially explained by a classical diffusive model of the nonlocal transport, and are not consistent with a recently proposed model based on spin Hall effects. Instead, our analysis suggests that a quasiballistic transport mechanism is responsible for the observed negative nonlocal resistance. Based on the sensitivity of our measurements and the spin Hall effect model, we find an upper limit for the spin Hall angle in gold of 0.023 at 4.5 K.

Nonlocal In-Plane Resistance due to Vortex-Antivortex Dynamics in High-TcSuperconducting Films

In high- ${T}_{c}$ superconducting ${\mathrm{YBa}}_{2}{\mathrm{Cu}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{7\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\delta}}$ films and at no applied magnetic field we found both positive and negative in-plane nonlocal resistance in the vicinity of a vortex-antivortex unbinding transition, as it was predicted recently. The sign of the nonlocal resistance depends on the probed region in the current-temperature diagram. Our results indicate that a negative nonlocal resistance is due to the motion of unbounded vortex-antivortex (V-A), whereas a positive sign is attributed to the motion of a 2D V-A ordered lattice.

Nonlocal in-plane Resistance in High-Tc Superconducting Films in the Vicinity of a Kosterlitz-Thouless-Type Transition

We have measured the nonlocal in-plane resistance in high-Tcsuperconducting Yba2Cu3O7–dfilms. The results obtained in zero magnetic field show a negative nonlocal resistance in the vicinity of the Kosterlitz-Thouless-type vortex-antivortex unbinding transition, as it was predicted recently by Wortis and Huse [Phys. Rev. B54, 12413 (1996)]. We also found that the negative nonlocal resistance takes place within a certain domain of the current-temperature diagram. Our findings indicate that nonlocal measurements in “planar” geometry can be a new method to study vortex dynamics in superconductors.

Electron transport in multi-terminal 2DEG-superconductor devices

We have studied multi-terminal transport in normal-superconductor devices. We will describe the transport in terms of an extended Landauer-Büttiker transport formalism, which will be illustrated by an experimental test of the reciprocity relations. Furthermore, we have found a negative three-terminal resistance and non-local resistance modulations.