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Hot-carrier luminescence in graphene

In this thesis, the effect of the sample properties on the characteristics of the hot carrier luminescence in graphene is investigated. The present work focuses on the two main issues described below. The first issue is the modification effects of near-infrared pulsed laser excitation on graphene. For excitation fluences several orders of magnitude lower than the optical damage threshold, the interaction with ultrafast laser pulses is found to cause a stable change in the properties of graphene. This photomodification also results in a decrease of the hot photoluminescence intensity. The detailed analysis shows that ultrafast photoexcitation leads to an increase in the local level of hole doping, as well as a change in the mechanical strain. The variation of doping and strain are linked with the enhanced adsorption of atmospheric oxygen caused by the distortion of the graphene surface. These findings demonstrate that ultrashort pulsed excitation can be invasive even if a relatively low laser power is used. Secondly, the variation of the hot photoluminescence intensity with the increasing charge carrier density in graphene is investigated. The electro-optical measurements performed using graphene field-effect transistors show a strong dependence of the photoluminescence intensity on the intrinsic carrier concentration. The emission intensity has a maximum value in undoped graphene and decreases with the increasing doping level. The theoretical calculations performed using a refined two-temperature model suggest that the reduction of the photoluminescence intensity is caused by an increase in the hot carrier relaxation rate. The modification of the carrier relaxation dynamics caused by photoinduced doping is probed directly using the two-pulse correlation measurements. The discovered sensitivity of the hot photoluminescence to the intrinsic carrier concentration can be utilised for spatially-resolved measurements of the Fermi level position in graphene samples, offering an advantage in resolution and speed.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:666368
Date January 2015
CreatorsAlexeev, Evgeny
ContributorsHendry, Euan; Moger, Julian
PublisherUniversity of Exeter
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://hdl.handle.net/10871/18231

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