Terahertz transmission and sheet conductivity of randomly stacked multi-layer graphene

Abstract

We investigate transmission characteristics and sheet conductivity of mono- to multi-layer graphene deposited on quartz in the terahertz (THz) frequency region. The free carrier absorption and Fabry-Perot interference between graphene layers give rise to nonlinear decrease of THz transmission from 76.7% to 27% for mono- to 12-layer graphene. These phenomena are well explained with a modified theoretical model based on Drude conductivity. The optical sheet conductivity of multi-layer graphene, made by layer-by-layer random stacking of high-quality mono- layer graphene, at 1 THz exhibits two orders of magnitude higher values than the universal optical conductivity due to intraband transition of intrinsic graphene. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC