Colloquium - Andy Lucas (University of Colorado) - Viscous Fluid of Electrons in Graphene

Andy Lucas (University of Colorado) 2/4/20 colloquium speaker
February 4, 2020
3:45PM - 4:45PM
1080 Physics Research Building, Smith Seminar room - reception at 3:30pm in front of the SSR

Date Range
2020-02-04 15:45:00 2020-02-04 16:45:00 Colloquium - Andy Lucas (University of Colorado) - Viscous Fluid of Electrons in Graphene It was conjectured over 50 years ago that electrons in a high quality conductor could flow collectively as a viscous fluid, just like air or water.  While impurities and umklapp scattering forbid this behavior in conventional metals, it has now become possible to study electrons that flow like classical fluids in high quality devices.  I will focus on recent theoretical and experimental advances in understanding and observing hydrodynamic behavior of electrons in graphene.  In particular, I will describe two experiments I have been involved in: (1) detecting a “hydrodynamic" enhancement of thermal conductivity in a (quasi)relativistic electron-hole plasma; (2) directly imaging of the breakdown of Ohm's law. 1080 Physics Research Building, Smith Seminar room - reception at 3:30pm in front of the SSR America/New_York public

It was conjectured over 50 years ago that electrons in a high quality conductor could flow collectively as a viscous fluid, just like air or water.  While impurities and umklapp scattering forbid this behavior in conventional metals, it has now become possible to study electrons that flow like classical fluids in high quality devices.  I will focus on recent theoretical and experimental advances in understanding and observing hydrodynamic behavior of electrons in graphene.  In particular, I will describe two experiments I have been involved in: (1) detecting a “hydrodynamic" enhancement of thermal conductivity in a (quasi)relativistic electron-hole plasma; (2) directly imaging of the breakdown of Ohm's law.