Finite temperature inelastic mean free path and quasiparticle lifetime in graphene

We adopt the GW and random phase approximations to study finite temperature effects on the inelastic mean free path and quasiparticle lifetime by directly calculating the imaginary part of the finite temperature self-energy induced by electron-electron interaction in extrinsic and intrinsic graphene. In particular, we provide the density-dependent leading order temperature correction to the inelastic scattering rate for both single-layer and double-layer graphene systems. We find that the inelastic mean free path is strongly influenced by finite-temperature effects. We present the similarity and the difference between graphene with linear chiral band dispersion and conventional two-dimensional electron systems with parabolic band dispersion. We also compare the calculated finite temperature inelastic scattering length with the elastic scattering length due to Coulomb disorder and comment on the prospects for quantum interference effects showing up in low-density graphene transport. We also carry out inelastic scattering calculation for electron-phonon interaction, which by itself gives rather long carrier mean free paths and lifetimes since the deformation potential coupling is weak in graphene, and therefore electron-phonon interaction contributes significantly to the inelastic scattering only at relatively high temperatures. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.085406