Revisiting the Mechanism of Electric Field Sensing in Graphene Devices

Electric field sensing has various real-life applications, such as early prediction of lightning. In this study, we effectively used graphene as an electric field sensor that can detect both positive and negative electric fields. The response of the sensor is recorded as the change in drain current under the application of an electric field. In addition, by systematic analysis, we established the mechanism of the graphene electric field sensor, and it is found to be different from the previously proposed one. The mechanism relies on the transfer of electrons between graphene and the traps at the SiO2/graphene interface. While the direction of charge transfer depends on the polarity of the applied electric field, the amount of charge transferred depends on the magnitude of the electric field. Such a charge transfer changes the carrier concentration in the graphene channel, which is reflected as the change in drain current.