Hot electron inelastic scattering and transmission across graphene surfaces

Inelastic scattering and transmission of externally injected hot carriers across graphene layers are considered as a function of graphene carrier density, temperature, and surrounding dielectric media. A finite temperature dynamic dielectric function for graphene for an arbitrary momentum q and frequency ω is found under the random phase approximation and a generalized scattering lifetime formalism is used to calculate the scattering and transmission rates. Unusual trends in scattering are found, including declining rates as graphene carrier density increases and interband transition excitations, which highlights the difference with out-of-plane as compared to in-plane transport. The results also show strong temperature dependence with a drastic increase in scattering at room temperature. The calculated scattering rate at T = 300 K shows a wide variation from 0.2 to 10 fs−1 depending on graphene carrier density, incident carrier momentum, and surrounding dielectrics. The analysis suggests that a transmiss...