Thermally activated conductivity in gapped bilayer graphene

TL;DR

This theoretical study explores how pseudospin coherence enhances thermally activated electron transport in gapped bilayer graphene, revealing non-monotonic conductivity behavior at specific band gaps, with potential experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanism where pseudospin coherence boosts subgap conductivity and predicts non-monotonic temperature dependence in gapped bilayer graphene.

Findings

Pseudospin coherence enhances subgap conductivity.

Thermally activated transport can show non-monotonic temperature dependence.

Effect observable in high-quality graphene sandwiched in boron nitride.

Abstract

This is a theoretical study of electron transport in gated bilayer graphene - a novel semiconducting material with a tunable band gap. It is shown that the which-layer pseudospin coherence enhances the subgap conductivity and facilitates the thermally activated transport. The mechanism proposed can also lead to the non-monotonic conductivity vs. temperature dependence at a band gap size of the order of 10 meV. The effect can be observed in gapped bilayer graphene sandwiched in boron nitride where the electron-hole puddles and flexural phonons are strongly suppressed.