Optoelectronic properties of graphene in the presence of optical phonon scattering

Abstract

We study in detail the optoelectronic properties of graphene. Considering the electron interactions with photons and phonons, we employ the mass- and energy-balance equations to self-consistently evaluate the photoinduced carrier densities, the optical conductance, and the transmission coefficient in the presence of a linearly polarized radiation field. We demonstrate that the photoinduced carrier densities increase around the electron-photon-phonon resonant transition. They depend strongly on the radiation intensity and frequency, temperature, and dark carrier density. For short-wavelength radiation $(\mathcal{L}<3\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\text{m})$, we obtain the universal optical conductance ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{0}={e}^{2}/(4\ensuremath{\hbar})$. Importantly, there exists an optical-absorption window in the radiation wavelength range $4--100\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\text{m}$, which is induced by different transition energies required for interband and intraband optical absorption. The position and width of this window depend sensitively on the temperature and the carrier density of the system. These theoretical results are in line with recent experimental findings and indicate that graphene exhibits important features not only in the visible regime but also in the midinfrared bandwidth.