Irradiation-induced metal-insulator transition in monolayer graphene

TL;DR

This paper reviews experiments on how disorder induced by ion irradiation causes a transition from metallic to insulating behavior in monolayer graphene, highlighting the roles of localization and variable-range hopping.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive experimental and theoretical analysis of disorder-induced metal-insulator transition in monolayer graphene, including effects of different ion irradiation doses.

Findings

Disorder increases lead to a transition from weak localization to strong localization.

Magnetoresistance behavior varies with disorder level, showing negative MR in VRH regime in perpendicular fields.

Theoretical models align well with experimental observations.

Abstract

A brief review of experiments directed to study a gradual localization of charge carriers and metal-insulator transition in samples of disordered monolayer graphene is presented. Disorder was induced by irradiation with different doses of heavy and light ions. Degree of disorder was controlled by measurements of the Raman scattering spectra. The temperature dependences of conductivity and magnetoresistance (MR) showed that at low disorder, conductivity is governed by the weak localization and antilocalization regime. Further increase of disorder leads to strong localization of charge carriers, when the conductivity is described by the variable-range-hopping (VRH) mechanism. It was observed that MR in the VRH regime is negative in perpendicular fields and is positive in parallel magnetic fields which allowed to reveal different mechanisms of hopping MR. Theoretical analysis is in a good agreement with experimental data.