Spatial mobility fluctuation induced giant linear magnetoresistance in multilayered graphene foam

Giant, positive, and near-temperature-independent linear magnetoresistance (LMR), as large as 340%, was observed in graphene foam with a three-dimensional flexible network. Careful analysis of the magnetoresistance revealed that Shubnikov–de Haas (SdH) oscillations occurred at low temperatures and decayed with increasing temperature. The average classical mobility ranged from 300 (2 K) to 150 (300 K) cm2V−1s−1, which is much smaller than that required by the observed SdH oscillations. To understand the mechanism behind the observation, we performed the same measurements on the microsized graphene sheets that constitute the graphene foam. Much more pronounced SdH oscillations superimposed on the LMR background were observed in these microscaled samples, which correspond to a quantum mobility as high as 26,500cm2V−1s−1. Moreover, the spatial mobility fluctuated significantly from 64,200cm2V−1s−1 to 1370cm2V−1s−1, accompanied by a variation of magnetoresistance from near 20,000% to less than 20%. The presence of SdH oscillations actually excludes the possibility that the observed LMR originated from the extreme quantum limit, because this would demand all electrons to be in the first Landau level. Instead, we ascribe the large LMR to the second case of the classical Parish and Littlewood model, in which spatial mobility fluctuation dominates electrical transport. This is an experimental confirmation of the Parish and Littlewood model by measuring the local mobility randomly (by measuring the microsized graphene sheets) and finding the spatial mobility fluctuation.