Electron energy and temperature relaxation in graphene on a piezoelectric substrate

Abstract

We study the energy and temperature relaxation of electrons in graphene on a piezoelectric substrate. Scattering from the combined potential of extrinsic piezoelectric surface acoustical (PA) phonons of the substrate and intrinsic deformation acoustical (DA) phonons of graphene is considered in a (non-)degenerate gas of Dirac fermions. It is shown that in the regime of low energies or temperatures the PA phonons dominate the relaxation and change qualitatively its character. This prediction is relevant for quantum metrology and electronic applications using graphene devices and suggests a new experimental setup for probing electron-phonon coupling in graphene.