Energy loss of charged particles traversing multilayer graphene

•We study dynamic polarization of multilayer graphene induced by fast electrons.•We evaluate the probability density for energy loss and the total energy loss.•Numerical results are shown in the cases of one, two, and three layers of graphene.•Strong effects are observed due to changing of the incident electron energy.•Total energy loss approximately scales with the number of graphene layers. We derive a dielectric response model for dynamic polarization of freestanding multilayer graphene induced by an external charged particle moving at an arbitrary angle of incidence. Using a two-dimensional, two-fluid hydrodynamic model for the single-layer polarizability, we evaluate the probability density for energy loss and the total energy loss of fast electrons traversing graphene under normal incidence for a broad range of the incident electron kinetic energies. Numerical results are obtained in the cases of one, two, and three layers of graphene. When the incident electron kinetic energy T increases, both the probability density and the total energy loss strongly decrease. It is also found that when the kinetic energy T decreases, the π and σ+π plasmon peak positions move to higher energies ω. In addition, the total energy loss approximately scales with the number of graphene layers N for all observed incident electron kinetic energies.