Role of acoustic phonons in frequency dependent thermal conductivity of graphene

Abstract

We study the effect of the electron-phonon interaction on the finite frequency dependent electronic thermal conductivity of two dimensional graphene. We calculate it for various acoustic phonons present in graphene and characterized by different dispersion relations using the memory function approach. It is found that the thermal conductivity $\kappa(T)$ in the zero frequency limit follows different power law for the longitudinal/transverse and the flexural acoustic phonons. For the longitudinal/transverse phonons, $\kappa(T) \sim T^{-1}$ at the low temperature and saturates at the high temperature. These signatures are qualitatively agree with the results predicted by the Boltzmann equation. Similarly, for the flexural phonons, we find that $\kappa(T)$ shows $T^{1/2}$ law at the low temperature and then saturates at the high temperature. In the finite frequency regime, we observe that the real part of the thermal conductivity, $\text{Re}[\kappa(\omega,T)]$ follows $\omega^{-2}$ behavior at the low frequency and becomes frequency independent at the high frequency.