Impact of contact resistance in Lorenz number measurements

2017/11/10 by Kin Chung Fong, Fong, Kin Chung
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #FOS: Physical sciences #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) #thermodynamics and calorimetric analyses

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1711.04005

openalex publication_date 2017/11/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We analyze the effect of contact resistance on the Lorenz number measurement based on direct electronic thermal conductivity experiments. The contact resistance can significantly limit the experimental measured value when the Lorenz number is enhanced, but not as much so when it is suppressed, should the Wiedemann-Franz law be violated. The result provides the conditions of the potential false negative error and highlights the importance of improving the contact resistance in studying non-Fermi liquid behavior in thermal transport experiments.

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