Raman fingerprint of charged impurities in graphene

We report strong variations in the Raman spectra for different single-layer graphene samples obtained by micromechanical cleavage. This reveals the presence of excess charges, even in the absence of intentional doping. Doping concentrations up to ∼ 1013 cm-2 are estimated from the G peak shift and width and the variation of both position and relative intensity of the second order 2D peak. Asymmetric G peaks indicate charge inhomogeneity on a scale of less than 1 μm. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.