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Anisotropic scattering rates in strain-tuned Sr2RuO4

Ben Currie1, David T. S. Perkins2, Evgeny Kozik1, Joseph J. Betouras2, and Jörg Schmalian3,4

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Phys. Rev. B 113, 115134 – Published 16 March, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/zjhr-xw73

Abstract

Motivated by recent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) experiments, we analyze the temperature, frequency, and momentum dependence of the single-particle scattering rate in a model of the γ-band of Sr2RuO4 under strain, with particular emphasis on the behavior near the Lifshitz transition where the Fermi energy crosses a single Van Hove point. While the scattering rate is only moderately anisotropic at zero strain, we find that it becomes strongly anisotropic at the Lifshitz point. At the lowest energies, we recover the expected universal behavior: the scattering rate varies (ignoring logarithmic corrections) as τ−1∼ω at the Van Hove point and as τ−1∼ω3/2 away from it. At higher energies, however, corrections of order ω2 become important in both regimes. We show that the experimentally observed behavior τ−1∼ωα with α≈1.4(2) at the Van Hove point can be quantitatively explained by a superposition of linear and quadratic contributions to the scattering rate, which are comparable in magnitude at the intermediate energies probed by experiment, rather than in terms of a new universal power law. We further predict a distinctive anisotropy, strain dependence, and a nonmonotonic frequency dependence of the scattering rate at a Lifshitz transition, all of which may be directly tested in experiments.

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Phys. Rev. B 113, 115134– Published 16 March, 2026
  • Received 9 December 2025
  • Revised 7 February 2026
  • Accepted 12 February 2026
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