Strong electron-phonon coupling in the sigma band of graphene

• First-principles studies of the electron-phonon coupling in graphene predict a high coupling strength for the ? band with values of the dimensionless electron-phonon coupling constant ? up to 0.9. Near the top of the ? band ? is found to be ≈ 0.7. This value is consistent with the observed kink in the ? band dispersion near the Γ-point in the Brillouin zone [1]. The calculations show that the electron-phonon coupling is driven primarily by the optical LO and TO phonon modes in graphene. The photoemission intensity from the ? band is strongly suppressed near the Γ-point due to sub-lattice interference effects. These effects are removed by taking data in the neighbouring Brillouin zone. By this we have been able to disentangle the influence of sub-lattice interference and electron-phonon coupling. Whilst superconductivity has been absent from graphene's list of exceptional properties, despite considerable experimental attempts, we speculate that if the strong EPC in the ? band survives a modification that shifts it to the Fermi level, e.g. by means of atomic substitution, a superconducting transition temperatures of around 70 K could be reached.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Den kondenserade materiens fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Condensed Matter Physics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

graphene

electron structure

phonon structure

electron-phonon coupling

sigma band

superconductivity

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

art (subject category)