Correlating Microscopic Electronic Features with Macroscopic Transport in Defective Graphene

Past studies on graphene show that intervalley and intravalley scattering off atomic defects and impurities change the electronic transport properties and give rise to weak Anderson localization at low temperatures. We will present our studies on the interactions and correlations between electron-hole charge puddles and the weakly localized regions. Using a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM) on graphene field effect transistors, we present experiments which aim to study the effects of point defects and to employ simultaneous STM and electronic transport measurements to directly associate microscopic electronic interactions with macroscopic transport. These experiments will show strides toward mapping out the phase space of defect-populated graphene in our investigation of the prospect of a metal-insulator quantum phase transition.