Giant intrinsic photoresponse in pristine graphene

Abstract

When the Fermi level is aligned with the Dirac point of graphene, reduced charge screening greatly enhances electron–electron scattering 1–5 . In an optically excited system, the kinematics of electron–electron scattering in Dirac fermions is predicted to give rise to novel optoelectronic phenomena 6–11 . In this paper, we report on the observation of an intrinsic photocurrent in graphene, which occurs in a different parameter regime from all the previously observed photothermoelectric or photovoltaic photocurrents in graphene 12–20 : the photocurrent emerges exclusively at the charge neutrality point, requiring no finite doping. Unlike other photocurrent types that are enhanced near p–n or contact junctions, the photocurrent observed in our work arises near the edges/corners. By systematic data analyses, we show that the phenomenon stems from the unique electron–electron scattering kinematics in charge-neutral graphene. Our results not only highlight the intriguing electron dynamics in the optoelectronic response of Dirac fermions, but also offer a new scheme for photodetection and energy harvesting applications based on intrinsic, charge-neutral Dirac fermions.