Probing the plasmon-phonon hybridization in supported graphene by externally moving charged particles

Abstract

We study the effects of variation in the doping density of graphene on hybridization taking place between its Dirac plasmon and the surface optical phonon modes in a SiO2 substrate, and show that this hybridization may be probed by a point charge that moves over graphene at a speed comparable to graphene’s Fermi speed. Using the dielectric-response formalism within the random phase approximation, we show that the plasmon-phonon hybridization exerts strong effects on the wake pattern in the induced potential in the plane of graphene, as well as on the stopping and image forces on the incident charge, in a manner that may be controlled by changing the doping density of graphene.