Abstract
Electrons moving in a conductor can transfer momentum to the lattice via collisions with impurities and boundaries, giving rise to a fluctuating mechanical stress tensor. The root-mean-squared momentum transfer per scattering event in a disordered metal (of dimension greater than the mean-free path and screening length ) is found to be reduced below the Fermi momentum by a factor of order for shear fluctuations and for pressure fluctuations. The excitation of an elastic bending mode by the shear fluctuations is estimated to fall within current experimental sensitivity for a nanomechanical oscillator.
- Received 29 October 2001
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.228303
©2002 American Physical Society