Eur. Phys. J. B (2012) 85: 13
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2011-20716-6

Regular Article

Continuous-distribution puddle model for conduction in trilayer graphene

Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Southern California, 90089-0484 Los Angeles, California, USA

^a e-mail: rsthom@usc.edu

Received: 30 August 2011
Received in final form: 21 November 2011
Published online: 11 January 2012

Abstract

The temperature dependence of the resistance in trilayer graphene is observed under different applied gate voltages. At small gate voltages the resistance decreases with increasing temperature due to the increase in carrier concentration resulting from thermal excitation of electron-hole pairs, characteristic of a semimetal. At large gate voltages excitation of electron-hole pairs is suppressed, and the resistance increases with increasing temperature because of the enhanced electron-phonon scattering, characteristic of a metal. We find that the simple model with overlapping conduction and valence bands, each with quadratic dispersion relations, is unsatisfactory. Instead, we conclude that impurities in the substrate that create local puddles of higher electron or hole densities are responsible for the residual conductivity at low temperatures. The best fit is obtained using a continuous distribution of puddles. From the fit the average of the electron and hole effective masses can be determined.