Unconventional Transport through Graphene on SrTiO3: A Plausible Effect of SrTiO3 Phase-Transitions

Abstract

High-k dielectric oxides are supposedly ideal gate-materials for ultra-high doping in graphene and other 2D-crystals. Here, we report a temperature-dependent electronic transport study on chemical vapor deposited-graphene gated with SrTiO₃ (STO) thin film substrate. At carrier densities away from charge neutrality point the temperature-dependent resistivity of our graphene samples on both STO and SiO₂/Si substrates show metallic behavior with contributions from Coulomb scattering and flexural phonons attributable to the presence of characteristic quasi-periodic nano-ripple arrays. Significantly, for graphene samples on STO substrates we observe an anomalous 'slope-break' in the temperature-dependent resistivity for T = 50 to 100 K accompanied by a decrease in mobility above 30 K. Furthermore, we observe an unusual decrease in the gate-induced doping-rate at low temperatures, despite an increase in dielectric constant of the substrate. We believe that a complex mechanism is at play as a consequence of the structural phase transition of the underlying substrate showing an anomalous transport behavior in graphene on STO. The anomalies are discussed in the context of Coulomb as well as phonon scattering.