October 5, 2006 | E. H. Hwang, S. Adam and S. Das Sarma
The paper by E. H. Hwang, S. Adam, and S. Das Sarma theoretically investigates carrier transport in gated 2D graphene monolayers, focusing on the impact of random charged impurity centers with density \( n_i \). The authors achieve excellent quantitative agreement with experimental data for carrier densities \( n > 10^{12} \, \text{cm}^{-2} \). The conductivity scales linearly with \( n/n_i \) and shows minimal temperature dependence. The asymmetry between electron and hole conductivities is attributed to the asymmetry in the charged impurity configuration, while the high-density saturation of conductivity is explained by the crossover between long-range and point scattering regimes. The low-density saturation of conductivity is explained by the inhomogeneity induced by charged impurities, which becomes significant when \( n \lesssim n_i \sim 10^{12} \, \text{cm}^{-2} \). The theory also predicts that reducing the impurity concentration to \( 10^{10} \, \text{cm}^{-2} \) could increase 2D graphene mobility to \( \sim 1.5 \times 10^8 \, \text{cm}^2/\text{Vs} \) even at high temperatures. The authors conclude that the dominant scattering mechanism in 2D graphene is Coulomb scattering by random charged impurities, and the low-density regime is dominated by density fluctuations caused by these impurities.The paper by E. H. Hwang, S. Adam, and S. Das Sarma theoretically investigates carrier transport in gated 2D graphene monolayers, focusing on the impact of random charged impurity centers with density \( n_i \). The authors achieve excellent quantitative agreement with experimental data for carrier densities \( n > 10^{12} \, \text{cm}^{-2} \). The conductivity scales linearly with \( n/n_i \) and shows minimal temperature dependence. The asymmetry between electron and hole conductivities is attributed to the asymmetry in the charged impurity configuration, while the high-density saturation of conductivity is explained by the crossover between long-range and point scattering regimes. The low-density saturation of conductivity is explained by the inhomogeneity induced by charged impurities, which becomes significant when \( n \lesssim n_i \sim 10^{12} \, \text{cm}^{-2} \). The theory also predicts that reducing the impurity concentration to \( 10^{10} \, \text{cm}^{-2} \) could increase 2D graphene mobility to \( \sim 1.5 \times 10^8 \, \text{cm}^2/\text{Vs} \) even at high temperatures. The authors conclude that the dominant scattering mechanism in 2D graphene is Coulomb scattering by random charged impurities, and the low-density regime is dominated by density fluctuations caused by these impurities.