Quantum-critical conductivity of the Dirac fluid in graphene
Graphene is expected to behave like a quantum-critical, relativistic plasma known as "Dirac fluid" near charge neutrality in which massless electrons and holes rapidly collide. In a recent study now published in Science, Patrick Gallagher and co-workers at the departments of physics and materials science in the U.S., Taiwan, China and Japan used on-chip terahertz spectroscopy and measured the frequency-dependent optical conductivity of graphene between 77 K and 300 K electron temperatures for the first time. Additionally, the scientists observed the quantum-critical scattering rate characteristic of the Dirac fluid. At higher doping, Gallagher et al. uncovered two distinct current-carrying modes with zero and nonzero total momenta as a manifestation of relativistic hydrodynamics.