Transport coefficients of graphene: Interplay of impurity scattering, Coulomb interaction, and optical phonons

Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
American Physical Society
Abstract

We study the electric and thermal transport of the Dirac carriers in monolayer graphene using the Boltzmann-equation approach. Motivated by recent thermopower measurements [F. Ghahari, H.-Y. Xie, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, M. S. Foster, and P. Kim, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 136802 (2016)], we consider the effects of quenched disorder, Coulomb interactions, and electron–optical-phonon scattering. Via an unbiased numerical solution to the Boltzmann equation we calculate the electrical conductivity, thermopower, and electronic component of the thermal conductivity, and discuss the validity of Mott's formula and of the Wiedemann-Franz law. An analytical solution for the disorder-only case shows that screened Coulomb impurity scattering, although elastic, violates the Wiedemann-Franz law even at low temperature. For the combination of carrier-carrier Coulomb and short-ranged impurity scattering, we observe the crossover from the interaction-limited (hydrodynamic) regime to the disorder-limited (Fermi-liquid) regime. In the former, the thermopower and the thermal conductivity follow the results anticipated by the relativistic hydrodynamic theory. On the other hand, we find that optical phonons become non-negligible at relatively low temperatures and that the induced electron thermopower violates Mott's formula. Combining all of these scattering mechanisms, we obtain the thermopower that quantitatively coincides with the experimental data.

Description
Advisor
Degree
Type
Journal article
Keywords
Citation

Xie, Hong-Yi and Foster, Matthew S.. "Transport coefficients of graphene: Interplay of impurity scattering, Coulomb interaction, and optical phonons." Physical Review B, 93, no. 19 (2016) American Physical Society: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.195103.

Has part(s)
Forms part of
Rights
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Link to license
Citable link to this page