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arXiv · 2201.13316

Phonon drag thermal Hall effect in metallic strontium titanate

Abstract

SrTiO$_3$, a quantum paralectric, displays a detectable phonon thermal Hall effect (THE). Here we show that the amplitude of THE is extremely sensitive to stoichiometry. It drastically decreases upon substitution of a tiny fraction of Sr atoms with Ca, which stabilizes the ferroelectric order. It drastically increases by an even lower density of oxygen vacancies, which turn the system to a dilute metal. The enhancement in the metallic state exceeds by far the sum of the electronic and the phononic contributions. We explain this observation as an outcome of three features: i) heat is mostly transported by phonons; ii) the electronic Hall angle is extremely large; and iii) there is substantial momentum exchange between electrons and phonons. Starting from Herring's picture of phonon drag, we arrive to a quantitative account of the enhanced THE. Thus, phonon drag, hitherto detected as an amplifier of thermoelectric coefficients, can generate a purely thermal transverse response in a dilute metal with a large Hall angle. Our results reveal a hitherto unknown consequence of momentum-conserving collisions between electrons and phonons.ely thermal transverse response in a dilute metal with a large Hall angle. Our results reveal a hitherto unknown consequence of momentum-conserving collisions between electrons and phonons.

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Shan Jiang, Xiaokang Li, Benoît Fauqué, Kamran Behnia. 2022-06-29. Phonon drag thermal Hall effect in metallic strontium titanate. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201975119

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