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Phys. Rev. B 70, 155109 (2004) [6 pages]

Electronic thermal conductivity of disordered metals

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Roberto Raimondi
Dipartimento di Fisica “E. Amaldi,” Università di Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy and INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, P.O. Box 13, 00044 Frascati, Italy

Giorgio Savona
Dipartimento di Fisica “E. Amaldi,” Università di Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy

Peter Schwab and Thomas Lück
Institut für Physik, Universität Augsburg, 86135 Augsburg, Germany

Received 2 August 2004; published 25 October 2004

We calculate the thermal conductivity of interacting electrons in disordered metals. In our analysis we point out that the interaction affects thermal transport through two distinct mechanisms, associated with quantum interference corrections and energy exchange of the quasiparticles with the electromagnetic environment, respectively. The latter is seen to lead to a violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law. Our theory, valid to all orders in perturbation theory, predicts a strong enhancement of the Lorenz ratio κ∕σT over the value predicted by the Wiedemann-Franz law, when the electrons encounter a large environmental impedance.


©2004 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.70.155109
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.70.155109
PACS: 72.15.Eb

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