Nonreciprocity of hydrodynamic electron transport in noncentrosymmetric conductors

Abstract

We show that the nonreciprocity of hydrodynamic electron transport in noncentrosymmetric conductors with broken time-reversal symmetry (TRS) is significantly enhanced compared to the disorder-dominated regime. This enhancement is caused by the linear dependence of the viscosity of the electron liquid on the flow velocity, which is allowed in the absence of TRS and Galilean invariance. The resulting nonlinear flows break dynamical similarity and must be characterized by two dimensionless parameters: the Reynolds number and the emergent nonreciprocity number. The latter is linear in velocity but independent of system size. We determine the nonlinear conductance of a Hall bar and show that the nonreciprocal correction to the current can be of comparable magnitude to its reciprocal counterpart.