A self-consistent theory for graphene transport

Abstract

We demonstrate theoretically that most of the observed transport properties of graphene sheets at zero magnetic field can be explained by scattering from charged impurities. We find that, contrary to common perception, these properties are not universal but depend on the concentration of charged impurities $n_{\mathrm{imp}}$. For dirty samples ($250\times 10^{10}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2}<n_{\mathrm{imp}}<400\times 10^{10}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2}$), the value of the minimum conductivity at low carrier density is indeed $4e^2/h$ in agreement with early experiments, with weak dependence on impurity concentration. For cleaner samples, we predict that the minimum conductivity depends strongly on $n_{\mathrm{imp}}$, increasing to $8e^2/h$ for $n_{\mathrm{imp}}\sim 20\times 10^{10}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2}$. A clear strategy to improve graphene mobility is to eliminate charged impurities or use a substrate with a larger dielectric constant.

To be published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA

References in corpus (4)

• Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films
• Atomic Structure of Graphene on SiO2
• Transport measurements across a tunable potential barrier in graphene
• Topological delocalization of two-dimensional massless Dirac fermions

Cited by in corpus (16)

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• Measurement of Scattering Rate and Minimum Conductivity in Graphene
• Acoustic phonon scattering limited carrier mobility in 2D extrinsic graphene
• Tuning the effective fine structure constant in graphene: opposing effects of dielectric screening on short- and long-range potential scattering
• Graphene Spin Transistor
• Coulomb interaction, ripples, and the minimal conductivity of graphene
• Single particle relaxation time versus transport scattering time in a 2D graphene layer
• Ground-state of graphene in the presence of random charged impurities
• Boltzmann transport and residual conductivity in bilayer graphene
• Density-Functional Theory of Graphene Sheets
• Supercritical Coulomb Impurities in Gapped Graphene
• Density inhomogeneity driven percolation metal-insulator transition and dimensional crossover in graphene nanoribbons
• Scattering mechanisms and Boltzmann transport in graphene
• Transport in suspended graphene
• The infrared conductivity of graphene
• Conductivity of graphene: How to distinguish between samples with short and long range scatterers