Experimental signatures of the transition from acoustic plasmon to electronic sound in graphene.

Barcons Ruiz, David; Hesp, Niels C H; Herzig Sheinfux, Hanan; Ramos Marimón, Carlos; Maissen, Curdin Martin; Principi, Alessandro; Asgari, Reza; Taniguchi, Takashi et al. · Sci Adv · 2023

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Fermi liquids respond differently to perturbations depending on whether their frequency is higher (collisionless regime) or lower (hydrodynamic regime) than the interparticle collision rate. This results in a different phase velocity between the collisionless zero sound and the hydrodynamic first sound. We performed terahertz photocurrent nanoscopy measurements on graphene devices, with a metallic gate close to the graphene layer, to probe the dispersion of propagating acoustic plasmons, the counterpart of sound modes in electronic Fermi liquids. We report the observation of a change in the plasmon phase velocity when the excitation frequency approaches the electron-electron collision rate that is compatible with the transition between the zero and the first sound mode.