www.nature.

com/scientificreports

OPEN Stokes flow around an obstacle in

viscous two-dimensional electron
liquid
G. M. Gusev1 ✉, A. S. Jaroshevich2, A. D. Levin1, Z. D. Kvon2,3 & A. K. Bakarov2
The electronic analog of the Poiseuille flow is the transport in a narrow channel with disordered edges
that scatter electrons in a diffuse way. In the hydrodynamic regime, the resistivity decreases with
temperature, referred to as the Gurzhi effect, distinct from conventional Ohmic behaviour. We studied
experimentally an electronic analog of the Stokes flow around a disc immersed in a two-dimensional
viscous liquid. The circle obstacle results in an additive contribution to resistivity. If specular boundary
conditions apply, it is no longer possible to detect Poiseuille type flow and the Gurzhi effect. However,
in flow through a channel with a circular obstacle, the resistivity decreases with temperature. By tuning
the temperature, we observed the transport signatures of the ballistic and hydrodynamic regimes on
the length scale of disc size. Our experimental results confirm theoretical predictions.

In the absence of disorder, an interacting many-body electron system can be described within the hydrody-
namic framework1–3. Typical three-dimensional metals rarely enter into the hydrodynamic regime because
the electron-impurity (phonon) scattering is stronger than the corresponding electron-electron interactions4.
However, it is expected that in a clean two-dimensional (2D) electron system, such as modulation doped GaAs
systems and high-quality graphene layers, the requirements for hydrodynamics can easily be satisfied.
Hydrodynamic characteristics are enhanced in a Poiseuille geometry, where a parabolic flow profile can be
realized in a narrow pipe. The fluid in this regime has zero velocity at the boundaries. The electronic analog of the
viscous flow in the pipe is a transport in a narrow channel of width W with diffusive scattering at the boundary,
driven by the electric field. Viscous electron flows are expected to occur when the mean free path for
electron-electron collision, lee, is much shorter than the sample width, while the mean free path due to impurity
and phonon scattering, l, is larger than W. It has been predicted that the electrical resistivity of a 2D system is
proportional to electron shear viscosity, η = 1 vF2τee , where vF is the Fermi velocity and τee is the electron-electron
4
scattering time τee = lee /vF 5–10 . For example, resistance decreases with the square of temperature,
ρ ∼ η ∼ τee ∼ T , referred to as the Gurzhi effect, and with the square of sample width ρ ∼ W −2. The boundary
−2

conditions can be characterized by a diffusive scattering or by a slip length ls with extreme cases being no-slip
(ls → 0) and no-stress (ls → ∞) conditions. It is expected that for ls → ∞ no Gurzhi effect should be detected.
Recently interest in electronic hydrodynamics has arisen from measurements of the transport in graphene,
where electron-phonon scattering is relatively weak11–14. Moreover, a series of updated theoretical approaches has
been published15–18 considering a viscous system in the presence of a magnetic field, which provides additional
possibilities to study magnetohydrodynamics.
Experiments on PdCoO219, WP220, and GaAs21–25 have many features demonstrating the viscous flow of elec-
trons. Moreover, the previous study of the giant negative magnetoresistance in high mobility GaAs structure26–29
could be interpreted as a manifestation of the viscosity effects, or interplay between ballistic and hydrodynamic
effects30.
The diffusive scattering condition is the relevant one for most liquid-solid interfaces. The absence of Poiseuille
flow and the Gurzhi effect in graphene has been taken as evidence for a specular limit with a very large slip
length14.
If the slip length is larger than sample size, viscous shear forces can arise, if the fluid flows around an obsta-
cle. Flow around a circular disc was considered by Stokes a long time ago31,32. In classical two-dimensional fluid

1
Instituto de Física da Universidade de São Paulo, 135960-170, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. 2Institute of Semiconductor
Physics, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia. 3Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia. ✉e-mail: gusev@
if.usp.br

Scientific Reports | (2020) 10:7860 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64807-6 1

www.nature.com/scientificreports/ www.nature.com/scientificreports

Figure 1. (a) Sketch of the velocity flow profile in the presence of a circular obstacle. (b) Image of the Hall bar
device with antidot (micro-hole) in the center of the Hall bridge between probes 2–3 (10–9) and 4–5 (8–7).

W (μm) ns (1011 cm2) vF (107 cm/s) l (μm) l2 (μm) η (m2/s)

6 6.0 3.3 35 3 0.25

Table 1.  Parameters of the electron system at T = 1.4 K. Parameters l, l2 and η are determined in the text.

mechanics, this may lead to a phenomenon referred as the “Stokes paradox”: no solution of the Stokes equations
can be found for which fluid velocity satisfies both the boundary conditions on the body and at infinity33.
Recently an electronic analog of the Stokes paradox has been proposed for two-dimensional Fermi liq-
uids4,34,35. Schematically this proposal is illustrated in Fig. 1a: the resistance of the sample with length L ∼ W is
studied, when a circle obstacle of radius a0  L is located in the middle of the sample36,37. In an electronic liquid,
the Stokes paradox has been resolved within the framework of the semiclassical description of quasiparticle
dynamics, and a linear response has been obtained due to the momentum relaxation process34–36. Indeed Ohmic
theory predicts that the obstacle will enhance total resistance36:
R total = R 0 + Robst , (1)
a 02
where R0 is obstacle free resistance, and Robst = cR , c is a geometric factor. It is interesting that the Stokes flow
0 2
L
around a disc leads to a dramatic consequence beyond Ohmic behaviour: the effective radius of the obstacle aeff is
always larger than the geometric radius aeff  a036. More importantly the obstacle resistance decreases with
temperature, suggesting that the viscous liquid is essentially always in the regime of specular scattering boundary
conditions.
In the present work, we have experimentally examined the transport properties of a mesoscopic 2D electron
system with a circular obstacle (antidot or micro-hole). As a reference we also studied a device without an antidot
in order to extract the obstacle resistance and determine all relevant viscous parameters, which provides the com-
parative analysis between theory and experiment. By tuning the temperature in a wide interval 1.5 < T < 70 K ,
we show that obstacle resistance Robst exhibits a drop as temperature increases (even as dR 0 /dT > O), in consist-
ence with predictions for the ballistic and hydrodynamic regimes.

Methods
The samples were grown by molecular beam epitaxy method. Our samples are high-quality, GaAs quantum wells
with a width of 14 nm with electron density ns = 6 × 1011 cm−2 and a mobility of μ = 2.5 × 106 cm2 /Vs at
T = 1.4 K. Other parameters, such as fermi velocity, mean free path and others are given in Table 1. We present
experimental results on Hall-bar devices. They consist of three, 6 μm wide segments of different length (6,20,6
μm), and 10 contacts. Figure 1b shows the image of a typical multiprobe Hall device I. The antidots are located in
the middle of the right side and left side segment of the Hall bar by chemical wet etching through the quantum
well. The measurements were carried out in a VTI cryostat, using a lock-in technique to measure the longitudinal
ρxx resistivity with an ac current of 0.1–1 μA through the sample. 3 Hall bars from the same wafers were studied
and showed consistent behaviour. As reference we also measured a Hall bar without an antidot. Additionally we
also studied macroscopic samples, where, it is expected, that the viscous effects are small. These samples have
Hall-bar geometry (length l × width W = 500 μm × 200 μm) with six contacts.

Experiment in reference device and discussion

The electronic analog of the hydrodynamic regime in the pipe is a electric current in a narrow channel of width
W ∼ 1 − 10 μm. Figure 1b shows the image of the Hall bar device with a micro-hole in the center of the Hall
bridge. The resistance between different probes has been measured. Figure 2a shows the longitudinal magnetore-
sistance for a sample with an antidot and a reference sample without an antidot. Longitudinal magnetoresistance
of a viscous 2D high mobility system in GaAs has been studied in previous research for different configurations
of current and voltage probes23–25. Remarkably, we find that probe configuration and sample geometry strongly
affect the temperature evolution of local resistance and its value at zero magnetic field. For example, when the

Scientific Reports | (2020) 10:7860 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64807-6 2

www.nature.com/scientificreports/ www.nature.com/scientificreports

Figure 2. (a) The magnetoresistance of a GaAs quantum well in a Hall bar sample with obstacle and in
a reference sample for different configurations, T = 1.4 K. The schematics show how the current source
and the voltmeter are connected for the measurements: configuration with antidot is shown on the right
side, configuration for reference without antidot is shown on the left side. (b) Temperature dependent
magnetoresistance of a reference Hall bar sample. Dashes are examples illustrating magnetoresistance calculated
from Eq. 2 for different temperatures: 1.5 K (blue), 27.7 K(light blue), 44 K (green). (c) Relaxation rates 1/τ
(squares) and 1/τ2,ee (circles) as a function of the temperature obtained by fitting the theory with experimental
results for the reference sample (black scatters) and a sample with an obstacle (red scatters). Thick black and red
lines is Eq. 3, dashes is Eq. 4.

current is applied between probes 1 and 6, and voltage is measured between probes 4 and 5 (referred further as C1
configuration), the corresponding resistance RI =1 −6; V =4 −5 increases with temperature T, while the resistance
RI =8 −7; V =4 −5, when the current is applied between probes 8 and 7 and voltage is measured between probes 4 and
5 (referred further as C2 configuration), decreases with T and always appears bigger than RI =1 −6; V =4 −5. We
attribute such behaviour to enhanced viscosity due to diffusive scattering on the rough edge and inhomogeneity
of the velocity field, predicted in paper15. Indeed we reproduced these results in the samples studied in this work,
and Fig. 2a shows that the resistance at B = 0 in configuration C2 is bigger than the resistance in configuration C1.
Moreover, the resistance with an antidot is enhanced in comparison with the reference sample in both configura-
tions. One more striking feature is the anomalously large negative magnetoresistance, which is strongly enhanced
for configuration C2. Satellite peaks are clearly observed in samples with antidots resulting in additional broad-
ening of the total magnetoresistance. Therefore, we may conclude here that the effect of the obstacle is adding a
series resistor, as has been predicted in paper36. Before analyzing the obstacle effect, and in order to make this
analysis more complete, we present the results of measurements of longitudinal magnetoresistivity ρxx(B) in sam-
ples without a micro-hole. In order to increase the viscosity effect, we study resistance in C2 configuration.
Figure 2b shows ρxx(B) as a function of magnetic field and temperature.
In the hydrodynamic approach, the semiclassical treatment of the transport describes the motion of carriers
when the higher order moments of the distribution function are taken into account. The momentum relaxation
rate 1/τ is determined by electron interaction with phonons and static defects (boundary). The second moment
relaxation rate 1/τ2,ee leads to the viscosity and contains the contribution from the electron-electron scattering
and temperature independent scattering by disorder15,16. It has been shown that conductivity is determined by
two independent parallel channels of electron momentum relaxation: the first is due to momentum relaxation
time and the second due to viscosity15,16. This approach allows the introduction of the magnetic field dependent
viscosity tensor and the derivation of the magnetoresisivity tensor15–17:
 τ 1 
ρxx = ρ0bulk 1 + ⁎  ,
2
 τ 1 + (2ωcτ2, ee )  (2)
W ( W + 6 l s) 1
where ρ0bulk = m/ne 2τ , τ ⁎ = , viscosity η = 4 vF2τ2, ee .
12η
All relaxation rates are given by:

1 T2 1
= AeeFL 2
+ ,
τ2, ee(T ) [ ln(EF /T )] τ2,0 (3)

Scientific Reports | (2020) 10:7860 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64807-6 3

www.nature.com/scientificreports/ www.nature.com/scientificreports

where EF is the Fermi energy, and the coefficient AeeFL be can expressed via the Landau interaction parameter. The
relaxation rate 1 is not related to the electron-electron collisions, since any process responsible for relaxation of
τ2,0
the second moment of the distribution function, even scattering by static defect, gives rise to viscosity15. The
momentum relaxation rate is expressed as:
1 1
= Aph T + ,
τ τ0 (4)
1
where Aph is the term responsible for the phonon scattering, and is the scattering rate due to static disorder (not
τ0
related to the second moment relaxation rate 1 ). It is worth noting that above 40 K the scattering from polar LO
τ2,0
phonons becomes important and the scattering time deviates from simple linear dependence on
temperature38,39).
We fit the magnetoresistance curves in Fig. 2b and the resistance in zero magnetic field with the 3 fitting
parameters: τ(T), τ*(T) and τ2,ee(T). We compare the temperature dependence of 1 and 1 with theoretical
τ2, ee(T ) τ (T )
predictions given by Eqs. 3 and 4, which is shown in Fig. 2c. The following parameters are extracted:
1/τ2,0 = 0.95 × 1011 s, AeeFL = 0.35 × 109 s−1 K −2, Aph = 0.5 × 109 sK −1 and 1/τ0 = 0.65 × 1010 s , which are
correlated with previous studies23,25. Note, however, that a discrepancy with Eqs. 3 and 4 is found at high temper-
atures, which we attributed to the inelastic process due to scattering by LO phonons. Relaxation time τ*(T)
depends on τ2,ee(T) and the boundary slip length ls. Comparing these values, we find that ls = 3.2 μm < L. Our
data are in good agreement with the theoretical prediction for the case when the slip length is temperature inde-
pendent. Table 1 shows the mean free paths: l = vFτ , l 2 = vFτ2, ee and viscosity, calculated with parameters
extracted from the fit of experimental data.
In the last part of this section, we wish to discuss the influence of the ballistic effect on negative mag-
netoresistance in our reference samples. As we already mentioned in the introduction, a previous study of the
magnetoresistance in high mobility two dimensional GaAs system demonstrated giant two-scale negative mag-
netoresistance consisting of a narrow temperature independent peak near zero magnetic field and shoulder-like
magnetoresistance, which strongly depends on the temperature29. The model30 proposes, that the temperature
independent peak is attributed to the ballistic effects, while shoulder is attributed to the hydrodynamic effects due
to flowing between randomly located macroscopic “oval” defects. It is worth noting that, because we observe small
size peaks in magnetoresistance in C1 configuration (Fig. 2a), ballistic contribution, predicted in the model30 can
have a non-negligible effect at least at low temperature. We present two arguments justifying, that ballistic effect is
smaller than hydrodynamic contribution. First, we have demonstrated that magnetoresistance and R(T) strongly
depend on the configuration (C1 or C2), which is unlikely to be attributed to the ballistic effect23–25. For example,
ballistic contribution can not describe the resistance drop with temperature (Gurzhi effect), observed in our
samples23. Second, our giant negative magnetoresitance strongly depends on temperature and can be successfully
described within a hydrodynamic framework15 in wide temperature range, in contrast to the T-independent peak
observed in paper29. However, even though both ballistic and hydrodynamic contribution are equally important
at low temperature, at high temperature, the viscosity effect becomes dominant, and all our conclusion can be
applied equally well to the samples with and without obstacle.

Experiment: obstacle resistance

In this section, we focus on the study of resistance in samples with an obstacle. Figure 3a shows the magnetore-
sistance for samples with an obstacle for both configurations C1 and C2. One can see small satellite peaks making
the central peak wider in comparison with the reference sample. We attribute these oscillations to geometrical
resonance effects, which are pronounced in 2D charged liquids40,41. We perform numerical simulations of the
electron trajectories in ballistic structures for different obstacle sizes (for details see Supplementary Material). The
results of theses simulations (dots) for a0 = 1 μm are compared to the experimental data. One can see, that the
width of the magnetoresistance curve roughly corresponds to the experimental data, while the position of the
peak is slightly shifted to a higher magnetic field in comparison with the experiment.
Magnetoresistance as a function of the magnetic field for different radii a0 is shown in Fig. 3b,c for two config-
urations C1 and C2. The diameter of the antidot has been measured directly from an optical microscope image
(Fig. 1b) with precision 0.1 μm. The effective antidot diameter is larger than the lithographic one due to the deple-
tion region, which, however, in our high density sample does not exceed 0.05 μm. We estimate this value from the
assumption that the width of the region where the potential increases from the bottom to the Fermi energy is of
the same order as the Fermi wavelength for typical electron concentrations42. Traces for the reference sample
without an obstacle are shown for comparison. One can see that the resistance with an obstacle is always larger
than the reference resistance. Resistance of a sample with an antidot radius of a0 = 1.3 μm is higher than the
resistance with a0 = 1.4 μm, probably due to radius uncertainty (±0.05 μm). Viscosity effects are enhanced in C2
configurations and below we focus on the results obtained from this probe configuration.
Figure 4a shows the evolution of magnetoresistance with temperature for samples with an obstacle in C2 con-
figuration. We fit a central peak with the Lorentzian curve (Eq. 2). Note that this peak is absent in magnetore-
sistance for C1 configuration (Figs. 2a and 3a) because it is overlapped by satellite peaks. As for the reference
sample, we used the 3 fitting parameters: τ(T), τ*(T) and τ2,ee(T). Figure 2c shows the relaxation rates 1/τ(T), and
1/τ2,ee(T) for an obstacle sample in comparison with the reference sample as a function of temperature. One can
see that the rate 1/τ2,ee(T) is following the dependencies of Eqs. 3 and 4 with parameters 1/τ2,0 = 1.15 × 1011 s,
AeeFL = 0.9 × 109 s−1 K −2, while the rate 1/τ(T) is saturated at low temperatures, and it is unlikely that it can be

Scientific Reports | (2020) 10:7860 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64807-6 4

www.nature.com/scientificreports/ www.nature.com/scientificreports

Figure 3. (a) Magnetoresistance for a sample with an obstacle in C1 and C2 configurations, T = 4.2 K. The dots
represent results for the billiard model. The magnetoresistance of samples with different obstacle radii and in the
reference sample (without obstacle) for configurations C1 (b) and C2 (c), T = 4.2 K.

Figure 4. (a) Temperature dependent magnetoresistance of a sample with obstacle (a0 = 1.3 μm). Dashes is
magnetoresistance calculated from Eq. 1 for 4.2 K with parameters taken from fit with the reference sample’s
magnetoresistance. (b) Temperature dependent resistivity of a sample with an obstacle, reference sample and
macroscopic sample. Triangulares are resistivity calculated from Eq. 2. Solid line represents resistivity due to
acoustic phonon scattering. (c) Relative obstacle resitivities for samples with different obstacle radii. Colors solid
line represents calculations from Eq. 8 with numerical parameters taken from magnetoresistance measurements
in the reference sample. Black solid line represents calculations without the Stokes paradox effect. Obstacle
resistance exhibits a drop with decreasing temperature (dρobst /dT < 0).

described by the acoustic phonon scattering mechanism. The difference between rates 1/τ2,ee(T) for obstacle and
reference samples can be attributed to uncertainty in the determination of the Lorentz curve width due to the
satellite ballistic peak. The momentum relaxation rate is extracted from resistivity at zero magnetic field, which is
enhanced in the obstacle samples.
The temperature dependence of resistivity at zero magnetic field for different obstacle radii and the reference
sample in configuration C2 is shown in Fig. 4b. Note, that for our approximately square-shaped devices (Fig. 1b),
2D resistivity practically equals the resistance: R = 1.6ρ , and below we discuss the resistivity behaviour. One can
see that resistance (resistivity) decreases in the temperature interval 1.5 K < T < 45 K and increases at higher
temperatures. We argue here that the ballistic (quasiballistic) contribution is described by the first term Eq. 2, and
comparison with theory proves that it is much smaller than the viscosity contribution described by the second

Scientific Reports | (2020) 10:7860 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64807-6 5

www.nature.com/scientificreports/ www.nature.com/scientificreports

term. Below we repeat several keyword arguments which justify this conclusion and which have been discussed
in previous publications23,25. First, the resistivity for C2 configuration decreases with temperature and follows the
Gurzhi law ρ ∼ T −2 at least at low T (see Fig. 2c)23. In contrast, resistivity in macroscopic samples increases with
T and follow the linear law ρ ∼ T (below 40 K), due to acoustic phonon scattering (see Fig. 4b)38,39. Therefore, we
would expect that resistivity due to moment relaxation is temperature independent (scattering with static defects
or boundary) or increases with T (due to the phonon scattering mechanism). Second, the electron-electron scat-
tering obeys the power law 1 ∼ T 2 (the logarithmic term is weakly T-dependent)23,25, instead of the linear T
τ2, ee(T )
law expected for phonon scattering. We compared the experimental dependence of ρ(T) in zero magnetic field
with theoretical models and obtained a good agreement (see Fig. 4b -triangulares). Finally, resistivity strongly
depends on the probe configuration (Fig. 2a), which is unlikely to be attributable to the ballistic effect. Indeed, we
calculated the ballistic contribution in our sample geometry and found only weak dependence on the configura-
tion, which disagrees with our observations.
In the Fig. 4b, we can see that resistivity of the samples with obstacles is always larger than the resistivity of the
reference sample within the investigated temperature range. The enhanced obstacle resistivity
ρobst(T ) = ρtotal(T ) − ρ0(T ) as a function of temperature is shown in Fig. 4c for two obstacle radii. For compari-
son we demonstrate the resistivity measured in a macroscopic sample ρmacr. Conventional Ohmic behaviour is
expected in this device: below 40 K, macroscopic resistivity displays simple linear temperature dependence due to
acoustic phonon scattering (shown by solid line), while at higher temperatures scattering from polar LO phonons
starts to become important. Indeed dρmacr /dT > 0 in the entire interval of temperatures. In contrast obstacle
resistance shows dρobst /dT < 0 in the same temperature region.

Theory and Discussion

Simplified Ohmic theory predicts that obstacle resistivity should be proportional to obstacle free resistance and
a 2
( )
the square of the obstacle radius3 ρobst(T ) ∼ ρ0(T ) 0 . Therefore, one might expect that obstacle resistivity just
L
reproduces the temperature dependence of the Ohmic resistivity. The solid line in Fig. 4c represents the resulting
obstacle resistivity without viscosity effects, when only phonon scattering (acoustic and LO phonons) is taken
into account. It predicts a very strong (~10 times) increase of Robst(T) with temperature, which indeed disagrees
with our experiments. One may conclude here that the T- coefficient of obstacle resistance is attributed to the
combination of two effects: viscous flow of electrons in a narrow sample and the hydrodynamic flow around the
obstacle.
As we already mentioned in the introduction, a lot of theoretical effort has gone into the resolution of the
Stokes paradox in two-dimensional charged liquids. The main result is that the effective radius of the obstacle is
larger than the geometric radius a0 and depends on temperature. The inverse scattering length drastically affects
electron flow behaviour in the presence of an obstacle: 1 = 1 + 1
leff l l2
Three different regimes of the transport have been considered36:

(i) Diffusive: in this limit a0  leff l 2 , and effective radius is give by

aeff = a0 . (5)
(ii) Ballistic: in this limit leff  a0, and effective radius is give by

2 a 0l 2
aeff = .
2 (6)
(iii) Hydrodynamic: in this limit

leff  a0  leff l 2 , and effective radius is give by

2 leff l 2
aeff = .
ln ( )
leff l 2
a 02 (7)
This difference in the parameter regimes leads to markedly different physical behavior in the transport. It is
remarkable that, in the hydrodynamic regime, the effective radius only weakly depends on the actual radius a0. In
order to compare our results with theoretical predictions for corresponding transport limits, we calculate relevant
electron parameters as a function of temperature. Figure 5 represents temperature dependence of the character-
istic lengths l, l2,ee and leff extracted from experiments on the two reference samples. One can see that the viscous
regime conditions l 2, ee < W < l are satisfied in all temperature intervals, which is justified by observation of the
Gurzhi effect below T < 40 K . Since obstacle radius is much smaller than the width of the sample, the hydrody-
namic limit for the Stokes effect requires higher temperatures T > 40 K . Model36 predicts a general behavior for
the effective obstacle radius, which covers all transport regimes:

Scientific Reports | (2020) 10:7860 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64807-6 6

www.nature.com/scientificreports/ www.nature.com/scientificreports

Figure 5.  The characteristic lengths l, l2 and leff (dashes) as a function of temperature. Dots-parameters
obtained from magnetoresistance measurements in the two reference samples. Fit of characteristic length with
parameters indicated in the main text. Horizontal lines- the width of the sample W and diameter of the obstacle
a0. Ballistic and hydrodynamic regimes on the length scale of the disk are shown.


 2leff 
2
aeff ≈ leff l 2
 1 − 

 
 l 2 
  2  
l   2leff  
× log  2  1 +   − 1 + 1
leff   a  
 
  0  
−1
2 

 2leff 
+ 1 +   − 1 
 .
 a   
0 
 (8)

We compared the prediction of this model with our results, which are shown in Fig. 4c. The theory predicts
slightly nonmonotonic behaviour of ρobs(T) due to the interplay between ρ0(T) and aeff(T) dependencies: at low
temperatures, contribution from obstacle free resistivity is dominant, while at higher temperatures, the effective
radius exhibits a sharp drop due to viscosity. We can see that the predicted results roughly agree with experimen-
tal observations due to the approximate character of the analytical calculations. It is because the theory36 does
not consider collisions with the sample boundary, which lead to a quadratic velocity profile in the sample and a
viscous character of the flow even without an obstacle.
It is important to note that dρobst /dT < 0 in the whole temperature interval, which disagrees with macroscopic
resistivity behavior (dρmacr /dT > 0) and mesoscopic total resistivity behaviour (with and without antidots), dis-
playing nonmonotonic behaviour: dρtotal /dT < 0 for 1.4 K < T < 40 K and dρtotal /dT > 0 for 40 K < T < 80 K .

Summary and Conclusion

We have studied an electronic analog of the Stokes flow around the obstacle in a two-dimensional system in high
quality GaAs quantum wells. The resistance of 2D electrons with a micro-hole fabricated in the center of the sam-
ple is always enhanced in comparison with obstacle-free devices. Obstacle resistance decreases with temperature
even as dρ0/dT > 0. Experimental results confirm the theoretically predicted significance of momentum relaxa-
tion in the ballistic and hydrodynamic regimes, which is significantly distinct from conventional Ohmic
behaviour.

Received: 9 December 2019; Accepted: 16 April 2020;

Published: xx xx xxxx

References
1. Andreev, A. V., Kivelson, S. A. & Spivak, B. Hydrodynamic description of transport in strongly correlated electron systems. Phys.
Rev. Lett. 106, 256804-1-4 (2011).
2. Principi, A. & Vignale, G. Violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law in hydrodynamic electron liquids. Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 056603-1-
5 (2015).
3. Lucas, A. & Das Sarma, S. Electronic hydrodynamics and the breakdown of the Wiedemann-Franz and Mott laws in interacting
metals. Phys. Rev. B 97, 245128-1-16 (2018).
4. Lucas, A. & Fong, K. C. Hydrodynamics of electrons in graphene. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 30, 053001-1-44 (2018).

Scientific Reports | (2020) 10:7860 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64807-6 7

www.nature.com/scientificreports/ www.nature.com/scientificreports

5. Gurzhi, R. N. Hydrodynamic effects in solids at low temperature. Sov. Phys. Usp. 11, 255–270 (1968).
6. Gurzhi, R. N., Kalinenko, A. N. & Kopeliovich, A. I. Electron-electron collisions and a new hydrodynamic effect in two-dimensional
electron gas. Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 3872 (1995).
7. Dyakonov, M. & Shur, M. Shallow water analogy for a ballistic field effect transistor: new mechanism of plasma wave generation by
dc current. Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 2465–2468 (1993).
8. Dyakonov, M. I. & Shur, M. S. Choking of electron flow: a mechanism of current saturation in field-effect transistors. Phys. Rev. B
51, 14341–14345 (1995).
9. Dyakonov, M. & Shur, M. Detection, mixing, and frequency multiplication of terahertz radiation by two-dimensional electronic
fluid. IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 43, 380–387 (1996).
10. Govorov, A. O. & Heremans, J. J. Hydrodynamic effects in interacting fermi electron jets. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 026803-1-4 (2004).
11. Levitov, L. & Falkovich, G. Electron viscosity, current vortices and negative nonlocal resistance in graphene. Nature Physics 12,
672–676 (2016).
12. Torre, I., Tomadin, A., Geim, A. K. & Polini, M. Nonlocal transport and the hydrodynamic shear viscosity in graphene. Phys. Rev. B
92, 165433-1-11 (2015).
13. Pellegrino, F. M. D., Torre, I., Geim, A. K. & Polini, M. Electron hydrodynamics dilemma: whirlpools or no whirlpools. Phys. Rev. B
94, 155414 (2016).
14. Bandurin, D. A. et al. Negative local resistance caused by viscous electron backflow in graphene. Science 351, 1055–1058 (2016).
15. Alekseev, P. S. Negative magnetoresistance in viscous flow of two-dimensional electrons. Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 166601-1-6 (2016).
16. Scaffidi, T., Nandi, N., Schmidt, B. A., Mackenzie, P. & Moore, J. E. Hydrodynamic electron flow and Hall viscosity. Phys. Rev. Lett.
118, 226601-1-5 (2017).
17. Delacrétaz, L. V. & Gromov, A. Transport signatures of the Hall viscosity. Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 226602-1-5 (2017).
18. Pellegrino, F. M. D., Torre, I. & Polini, M. Nonlocal transport and the Hall viscosity of two-dimensional hydrodynamic electron
liquids. Phys. Rev. B 96, 195401-1-11 (2017).
19. Moll, P. J. W., Kushwaha, P., Nandi, N., Schmidt, B. & Mackenzie, A. P. Evidence for hydrodynamic electron flow in PdCoO2. Science
351, 1061–1064 (2016).
20. Gooth, J. et al. Thermal and electrical signatures of a hydrodynamic electron fluid in tungsten diphosphide. Nat.Commun, 9, 4093
(2018).
21. Molenkamp, L. W. & de Jong, M. J. M. Observation of Knudsen and Gurzhi transport regimes in a two-dimensional wire. Solid-State
Electron. 37, 551–553 (1994).
22. de Jong, M. J. M. & Molenkamp, L. W. Hydrodynamic electron flow in high-mobility wires. Phys. Rev. B 51, 13389–13402 (1995).
23. Gusev, G. M., Levin, A. D., Levinson, E. V. & Bakarov, A. K. Viscous electron flow in mesoscopic two-dimensional electron gas. AIP
advance 8, 025318-1-6 (2018).
24. Gusev, G. M., Levin, A.D., Levinson, E.V. & Bakarov, A. K. Viscous transport and Hall viscosity in a two-dimensional electron
system 98, 161303(R) (2018).
25. Levin, A. D., Gusev, G. M., Levinson, E. V., Kvon, Z. D. & Bakarov, A. K. Vorticity-induced negative nonlocal resistance in a viscous
two-dimensional electron system. Phys. Rev. B 97, 245308-1-7 (2018).
26. Bockhorn, L., Barthold, P., Schuh, D., Wegscheider, W. & Haug, R. J. Magnetoresistance in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron
gas. Phys. Rev. B 83, 113301 (2011).
27. Hatke, A. T., Zudov, M. A., Reno, J. L., Pfeiffer, L. N. & West, L. W. Giant negative magnetoresistance in high-mobility two-
dimensional electron systems. Phys. Rev. B 85, 081304 (2012).
28. Mani, R. G., Kriisa, A. & Wegscheider, W. Size-dependent giant-magnetoresistance in millimeter scale GaAs/AlGaAs 2D electron
devices. Sci. Rep. 3, 2747 (2013).
29. Bockhorn, L. et al. Magnetoresistance induced by rare strong scatterers in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas. Phys. Rev.
B 90, 165434 (2014).
30. Alekseev, P. S. & Semina, M. A. Ballistic flow of two-dimensional interacting electrons. Phys. Rev. B 98, 165412 (2018).
31. Stokes, G. G. On the effect of the internal friction of fluids on the motion of pendulums. Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc. 9, 8–106 (1851).
32. Landau, L. D. & Lifshitz, E. M. Fluid Mechanics. 2nd ed. (Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, 1987).
33. Lamb, H. Hydrodynamics. 6th ed. (Dover, New York, 1945).
34. Hruska, M. & Spivak, B. Conductivity of the classical two-dimensional electron gas. Phys. Rev. B 65, 033315-1-3 (2002).
35. Guo, H., Ilseven, E., Falkovich, G. & Levitov, L. Stokes paradox, back reflections and interaction-enhanced conduction. Preprint at
https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.09239 (2017).
36. Lucas, A. Stokes paradox in electronic Fermi liquids. Phys. Rev. B 95, 115425-1-14 (2017).
37. Kiselev, E. I. & Schmalian, J. Boundary conditions of viscous electron flow. Phys. Rev. B 99, 035430-1-17 (2019).
38. Harris, J. J. et al. Acoustic phonon scattering in ultra-high mobility, low carrier density GaAs/(Al,Ga)As heterojunctions. Surface
Science 229, 113–115 (1990).
39. Kawamura, T. & Das Sarma, S. Phonon-scattering-limited electron mobilities in AlxGa1−xAs/GaAs heterojunctions. Phys. Rev. B 45,
3612–3627 (1992).
40. Beenakker, C. W. J. & van Houten, H. Billiard model of a ballistic multiprobe conductor. Phys. Rev. Lett. 63, 1857–1860 (1989).
41. Roukes, M. L. et al. Quenching of the Hall effect in a one-dimensional wire. Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 3011–3014 (1987).
42. Ando, T. & Uryu, S. Chaotic Transport in Antidot Lattices. Journal of Electronic Materials 29, 557–564 (2000).

Acknowledgements
We thank J.P. Peña for her help in sample fabrication. The financial support of this work by FAPESP (Brazil),
CNPq (Brazil) and the Russian Science Foundation (Grant No.16-12-10041) is acknowledged.

Author contributions
G.M.G., A.D.L., Z.D.K. and A.S.J. performed the experiment, A.K.B. synthesized the crystals, G.M.G. and A.D.L.
provided the theoretical framework, G.M.G. wrote the manuscript with inputs from all authors. G.M.G. and
Z.D.K. supervised the work. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information
Supplementary information is available for this paper at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64807-6.
Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to G.M.G.
Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints.

Scientific Reports | (2020) 10:7860 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64807-6 8

www.nature.com/scientificreports/ www.nature.com/scientificreports

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or
format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Cre-
ative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the
material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not per-
mitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the
copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

© The Author(s) 2020

Scientific Reports | (2020) 10:7860 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64807-6 9