Gate tunable quantum transport in double layer graphene

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a gate-tunable additional graphene layer influences quantum transport in double layer graphene, affecting defect screening, electron interactions, and quantum interference, with implications for device performance.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical analysis of gate-tunable screening effects on transport properties and quantum corrections in double layer graphene heterostructures.

Findings

Screening of charged defects depends on defect location and concentration.

Mobility is strongly affected by screening of elastic relaxation rates.

Quantum interference effects are suppressed by additional screening, altering weak-localization behavior.

Abstract

We analyze the effect of screening provided by the additional graphene layer in double layer graphene heterostructures (DLGs) on transport characteristics of DLG devices in the metallic regime. The effect of gate-tunable charge density in the additional layer is two-fold: it provides screening of the long-range potential of charged defects in the system, and screens out Coulomb interactions between charge carriers. We find that the efficiency of defect charge screening is strongly dependent on the concentration and location of defects within the DLG. In particular, only a moderate suppression of electron-hole puddles around the Dirac point induced by the high concentration of remote impurities in the silicon oxide substrate could be achieved. A stronger effect is found on the elastic relaxation rate due to charged defects resulting in mobility strongly dependent on the electron denisty in the additional layer of DLG. We find that the quantum interference correction to the resistivity of graphene is also strongly affected by screening in DLG. In particular, the dephasing rate is strongly suppressed by the additional screening that supresses the amplitude of electron-electron interaction and reduces the diffusion time that electrons spend in proximity of each other. The latter effect combined with screening of elastic relaxation rates results in a peculiar gate tunable weak-localization magnetoresistance and quantum correction to resistivity. We propose suitable experiments to test our theory and discuss the possible relevance of our results to exisiting data.