Electron mobility in graphene without invoking the Dirac equation

The Dirac point and linear band structure in graphene bestow it with remarkable electronic and optical properties, a subject of intense ongoing research. Explanations of high electronic mobility in graphene often invoke the masslessness of electrons based on the effective relativistic Dirac-equation...

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Published inAmerican journal of physics Vol. 87; no. 4; pp. 291 - 295
Main Authors Ullal, Chaitanya K., Shi, Jian, Sundararaman, Ravishankar
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Woodbury American Institute of Physics 01.04.2019
Subjects
Carbon
Electronics industry
Electrons
Low temperature
Mobility
Optical properties
Semiconductors
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ISSN0002-9505
1943-2909
DOI10.1119/1.5092453

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Summary:The Dirac point and linear band structure in graphene bestow it with remarkable electronic and optical properties, a subject of intense ongoing research. Explanations of high electronic mobility in graphene often invoke the masslessness of electrons based on the effective relativistic Dirac-equation behavior, which are inaccessible to most undergraduate students and are not intuitive for non-physics researchers unfamiliar with relativity. Here, we show how to use only basic concepts from semiconductor theory and the linear band structure of graphene to explain its unusual effective mass and mobility, and compare them with conventional metals and semiconductors. We discuss the more intuitive concept of transverse effective mass, which emerges naturally from these basic derivations, and which approaches zero in the limit of undoped graphene at low temperature and is responsible for its extremely high mobility.
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ISSN:0002-9505
1943-2909
DOI:10.1119/1.5092453