Intrinsic and extrinsic performance limits of graphene devices on SiO2

The linear dispersion relation in graphene gives rise to a surprising prediction: the resistivity due to isotropic scatterers, such as white-noise disorder or phonons, is independent of carrier density, n. Here we show that electron-acoustic phonon scattering is indeed independent of n, and contributes only 30 Omega to graphene's room-temperature resistivity. At a technologically relevant carrier density of 1 x1012 cm-2, we infer a mean free path for electron-acoustic phonon scattering of >2 microm and an intrinsic mobility limit of 2 x 105 cm2 V-1 s-1. If realized, this mobility would exceed that of InSb, the inorganic semiconductor with the highest known mobility ( approximately 7.7 x 104 cm2 V-1 s-1; ref. 9) and that of semiconducting carbon nanotubes ( approximately 1 x 105 cm2 V-1 s-1; ref. 10). A strongly temperature-dependent resistivity contribution is observed above approximately 200 K (ref. 8); its magnitude, temperature dependence and carrier-density dependence are consistent with extrinsic scattering by surface phonons at the SiO2 substrate and limit the room-temperature mobility to approximately 4 x 104 cm2 V-1 s-1, indicating the importance of substrate choice for graphene devices.