Transport in Graphene: Ballistic or Diffusive?

TL;DR

This study proposes and demonstrates that conductance profiles and scanning probe microscopy can effectively distinguish between ballistic and diffusive electron transport in graphene devices, overcoming limitations of shot noise measurements.

Contribution

The paper introduces the use of conductance profiles and SPM simulations as new methods to identify transport mechanisms in graphene, providing practical tools for experimental analysis.

Findings

Conductance profile dependence reveals transport type.

SPM measurements visualize charge flow.

Methods effectively differentiate ballistic and diffusive transport.

Abstract

We investigate the transport of electrons in disordered and pristine graphene devices. Fano shot noise, a standard metric to assess the mechanism for electronic transport in mesoscopic devices, has been shown to produce almost the same magnitude ($\approx 1/3$) in ballistic and diffusive graphene devices and is therefore of limited applicability. We consider a two-terminal geometry where the graphene flake is contacted by narrow metallic leads. We propose that the dependence of the conductance on the position of one of the leads, a conductance profile, can give us insight into the charge flow, which can in turn be used to analyze the transport mechanism. Moreover, we simulate scanning probe microscopy (SPM) measurements for the same devices, which can visualize the flow of charge inside the device, thus complementing the transport calculations. From our simulations, we find that both the conductance profile and SPM measurements are excellent tools to assess the transport mechanism differentiating ballistic and diffusive graphene systems.