Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of the Dirac fluid of charge carriers on graphene

Rodrigo C. V. Coelho, Miller Mendoza, Mauro M. Doria, and Hans J. Herrmann
Phys. Rev. B 96, 184307 – Published 27 November 2017
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Abstract

We provide numerical evidence that a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability occurs in the Dirac fluid of electrons in graphene and can be detected in current experiments. This instability appears for electrons in the viscous regime passing though a micrometer-scale obstacle and affects measurements on the time scale of nanoseconds. A possible realization with a needle-shaped obstacle is proposed to produce and detect this instability by measuring the electric potential difference between contact points located before and after the obstacle. We also show that, for our setup, the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability leads to the formation of whirlpools similar to the ones reported in Bandurin et al. [Science 351, 1055 (2016)]. To perform the simulations, we develop a lattice Boltzmann method able to recover the full dissipation in a fluid of massless particles.

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  • Received 2 June 2017
  • Revised 9 October 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.184307

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsNonlinear DynamicsFluid DynamicsStatistical Physics & Thermodynamics

Authors & Affiliations

Rodrigo C. V. Coelho1,2,*, Miller Mendoza2,†, Mauro M. Doria1,3,‡, and Hans J. Herrmann2,§

  • 1Departamento de Física dos Sólidos, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 21941-972 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 2ETH Zürich, Computational Physics for Engineering Materials, Institute for Building Materials Schafmattstrasse 6, HIF, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland
  • 3Instituto de Física “Gleg Wataghin”, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Unicamp 13083-970, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

  • *rcvcoelho@if.ufrj.br
  • mmendoza@ethz.ch
  • mmd@if.ufrj.br
  • §hans@ifb.baug.ethz.ch

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Issue

Vol. 96, Iss. 18 — 1 November 2017

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