Transient absorption and photocurrent microscopy show that hot electron supercollisions describe the rate-limiting relaxation step in graphene.

Using transient absorption (TA) microscopy as a hot electron thermometer, we show that disorder-assisted acoustic-phonon supercollisions (SCs) best describe the rate-limiting relaxation step in graphene over a wide range of lattice temperatures (Tl = 5-300 K), Fermi energies (E(F) = ± 0.35 eV), and optical probe energies (~0.3-1.1 eV). Comparison with simultaneously collected transient photocurrent, an independent hot electron thermometer, confirms that the rate-limiting optical and electrical response in graphene are best described by the SC-heat dissipation rate model, H = A(T(e)(3) - T(l)(3)). Our data further show that the electron cooling rate in substrate-supported graphene is twice as fast as in suspended graphene sheets, consistent with SC model prediction for disorder.