Observation of electron weak localization and correlation effects in disordered graphene

We have studied the electron transport properties of a disordered graphene sample, where the disorder was intentionally strengthened by Ga⁺ ion irradiation. The magneto-conductance of the sample exhibits a typical two-dimensional electron weak localization behavior, with electron-electron interaction as the dominant dephasing mechanism. The absence of electron anti-weak localization in the sample implies strong intersublattice and/or intervalley scattering caused by the disorders. The temperature and bias-voltage dependencies of conductance clearly reveal the suppression of conductance at low energies, indicating opening of a Coulomb gap due to electron-electron interaction in the disordered graphene sample. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10774172 and 10874220), and the National Basic Research Program of China from the MOST (Grant No. 2006CB921304)