An exact solution of the linearized Boltzmann transport equation and its application to mobility calculations in graphene bilayers

This paper revisits the problem of the linearized Boltzmann transport equation (BTE), or, equivalently, of the momentum relaxation time, momentum relaxation time (MRT), for the calculation of low field mobility, which in previous works has been almost universally solved in approximated forms. We propose an energy driven discretization method that allows an exact determination of the relaxation time by solving a linear, algebraic problem, where multiple scattering mechanisms are naturally accounted for by adding the corresponding scattering rates before the calculation of the MRT, and without resorting to the semi-empirical Matthiessen’s rule for the relaxation times. The application of our rigorous solution of the linearized BTE to a graphene bilayer reveals that, for a non monotonic energy relation, the relaxation time can legitimately take negative values with no unphysical implications. We finally compare the mobility calculations provided by an exact solution of the MRT problem with the results obtained with some of the approximations most frequently employed in the literature and so discuss their accuracy.