Electronic Poiseuille flow in hexagonal boron nitride encapsulated graphene field effect transistors

Abstract

Electron-electron interactions in graphene are sufficiently strong to induce a correlated and momentum-conserving flow such that charge carriers behave similarly to the Hagen-Poiseuille flow of a classical fluid. In the current work, we investigate the electronic signatures of such a viscous charge flow in high-mobility graphene field effect transistors (FETs). In two complementary measurement schemes, we monitor differential resistance of graphene for different channel widths and for different effective electron temperatures. By combining both approaches, the presence of viscous effects is verified in a temperature range starting from 178 K and extending up to room temperature. Our experimental findings are supported by finite element calculations of the graphene channel, which also provide design guidelines for device geometries that exhibit increased viscous effects. The presence of viscous effects near room temperature opens up avenues for functional hydrodynamic devices such as geometric rectifiers like a Tesla valve and charge amplifiers based on the electronic Venturi effect.