Charged-impurity scattering in graphene

Since the initial demonstration of the ability to experimentally isolate a single graphene sheet(1), a great deal of theoretical work has focused on explaining graphene's unusual carrier-density-dependent conductivity sigma(n), and its minimum value (sigma(min)) of nearly twice the quantum unit of conductance (4e(2)/h) (refs 1-6). Potential explanations for such behaviour include short-range disorder(7-10), 'ripples' in graphene's atomic structure(11,12) and the presence of charged impurities(7,8,13-18). Here, we conduct a systematic study of the last of these mechanisms, by monitoring changes in electronic characteristics of initially clean graphene(19) as the density of charged impurities (n(imp)) is increased by depositing potassium atoms onto its surface in ultrahigh vacuum. At non-zero carrier density, charged-impurity scattering produces the widely observed linear dependence(1-6) of sigma(n). More significantly, we find that sigma(min) occurs not at the carrier density that neutralizes n imp, but rather the carrier density at which the average impurity potential is zero(15). As n(imp) increases, sigma(min) initially falls to a minimum value near 4e(2)/h. This indicates that sigma(min) in the present experimental samples(1-6) is governed not by the physics of the Dirac point singularity(20,21), but rather by carrier-density inhomogeneities induced by the potential of charged impurities(6,8,14,15).