Bound on resistivity in flat-band materials due to the quantum metric

Johannes Mitscherling, Tobias Holder

Published 2021-10-27, updated 2022-03-01Version 3

The quantum metric is a central quantity of band theory but has so far not been related to many response coefficients due to its nonclassical origin. However, within a newly developed Kubo formalism for fast relaxation, the decomposition of the dc electrical conductivity into both classical (intraband) and quantum (interband) contributions recently revealed that the interband part is proportional to the quantum metric. Here, we show that interband effects due to the quantum metric can be significantly enhanced and even dominate the conductivity for semimetals at charge neutrality and for systems with highly quenched bandwidth. This is true in particular for topological flat-band materials of nonzero Chern number, where for intermediate relaxation rates an upper bound exists for the resistivity due to the common geometrical origin of quantum metric and Berry curvature. We suggest to search for these effects in highly tunable rhombohedral trilayer graphene flakes.