Infrared absorption spectra of few-layer graphenes studied by first principles calculations

The infrared (IR) absorption spectra of the undoped, the hole- and electron-doped few-layer graphene (FLG) with layer number of N=1,2,3N=1,2,3 have been calculated using the density functional theory in the local density approximation. It is found that in contrast with the featureless optical spectrum of the undoped monolayer graphene, the undoped AB-stacking bilayer and trilayer graphenes exhibit interesting rich IR spectra, e.g., the peaks and jumps in their IR spectra, which are caused by the coupling between different layers. And clear characteristic peaks, lying at different energies, exist in the IR spectra of the hole- or electron-doped bilayer and trilayer graphenes due to the asymmetrical band structures. Beside, based upon their different IR spectra, a powerful experimental tool has been proposed to identify accurately the layer number and doping type of the FLGs.