Giant hot electron thermalization via stacking of graphene layers

Abstract

The capability of graphene to generate hot electrons is predicted to be effective in converting low energy photons into electrical currents for the mid-infrared photodetection [1,2]. However, the quantum yield of such hot electrons is not sufficient due to the limited thickness of two-dimensional graphene [3-5]. Therefore, it raises the question whether the electron thermalization is efficient enough to generate a large number of hot electrons in graphitic materials as a detectable photocurrent. Here, an experimental demonstration of the sufficient hot electron generation in Bernal stacking sequence nano-graphite films is presented. A comprehensive layer number dependence (1–120-layers graphene) study verifies the strong hot electron scattering correlations, exhibiting intriguing two-dimensional properties into their bulk counterparts. Consequently, the spectral coverage of hot electrons promoted from mid-infrared (4 μm) to near-infrared (1.2–1.6 μm) energy level is achieved, leading to a 109 eV−1 cm−2 populated hot electron density for the mid-infrared photodetection. In addition, the consistently increased number of photo-excited electrons via stacking of graphene layers, results in a gradual evolution of subsequent electron thermalization. The proposed scheme for exploring the thickness dependence electron thermalization property of the graphitic material paves the way to design ultrafast and sensitive mid-infrared photodetecters.