Ultrafast photo-thermoelectric currents in graphene junctions in the mid-infrared

Abstract

Graphene is widely recognized for its ultrafast and broadband photocurrent response, but whether the broadband ultrafast characteristics are preserved at mid-infrared wavelengths with photon energies below the optical phonon energy remains an open question. Here, we investigate the carrier dynamics in graphene junctions under mid-infrared excitation using an ultrafast pump-probe photocurrent spectroscopy. We utilize dual split gate devices to demonstrate that the photo-thermoelectric effect can dominate the photoresponse of graphene also for a mid-infrared femtosecond excitation. We observe that graphene retains its broadband photocurrent response in this spectral region, but the photocurrent relaxation time increases from ca. 2 ps below 8-9 micrometer up to 3 ps at longer mid-infrared wavelengths. The absence of a pronounced phonon bottleneck in the decay dynamics at room temperature suggests an efficient interplay of electron-electron and electron-phonon scattering even for photon energies below the optical phonon energy in graphene. The observed wavelength dependence of the photocurrent relaxation times is consistent with energy-dependent theoretical relaxation times as derived from a microscopic transport theory of graphene that includes electron-phonon coupling within a Holstein-Peierls Hamiltonian.