Anomalous shot noise in a bad metal beta-tantalum

We investigate the electronic shot noise produced by nanowires of beta-Ta, an archetypal ``bad" metal with resistivity near the Ioffe-Regel localization limit. The Fano factor characterizing the shot noise exhibits a strong dependence on temperature and is suppressed compared to the expectations for quasiparticle diffusion, but hopping transport is ruled out by the analysis of scaling with the nanowire length. These anomalous behaviors closely resemble those of strange metal nanowires, suggesting that beta-Ta may host a correlated electron liquid. This material provides an accessible platform for exploring exotic electronic states of matter.
Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; comments are welcome