We predict the existence of transverse electric (TE) plasmons in bilayer graphene. We find that their plasmonic properties are much more pronounced in bilayer than in monolayer graphene, in a sense that they can get more localized at frequencies just below $\hbarω=0.4$~eV for adequate doping values. This is a consequence of the perfectly nested bands in bilayer graphene which are separated by $\sim 0.4$~eV.
Graphene plasmons are of remarkable features that make graphene plasmon elements promising for applications to integrated photonic devices. The fabrication of graphene plasmon components and control over plasmon propagating are of fundamental important. Through near-field plasmon imaging, we demonstrate controllable modifying of the reflection of graphene plasmon at boundaries etched by ion beams. Moreover, by varying ion dose at a proper value, nature like reflection boundary can be obtained. We also investigate the influence of ion beam incident angle on plasmon reflection. To illustrate the…
With the unique possibilities for controlling light in nanoscale devices, graphene plasmonics has opened new perspectives to the nanophotonics community with potential applications in metamaterials, modulators, photodetectors, and sensors. This paper briefly reviews the recent exciting progress in graphene plasmonics. We begin with a general description for optical properties of graphene, particularly focusing on the dispersion of graphene-plasmon polaritons. The dispersion relation of graphene-plasmon polaritons of spatially extended graphene is expressed in terms of the local response limit …
We present a magnetically biased graphene-ferrite structure discriminating the TE and TM plasmonic modes of graphene. In this structure, the graphene TM plasmons interact reciprocally with the structure. In contrast, the graphene TE plasmons exhibit nonreciprocity. This nonreciprocity is manifested in unidirectional TE propagation in a frequency band close to the interband threshold frequency. The proposed structure provides a unique platform for the experimental demonstration of the unusual existence of the TE plasmonic mode in graphene.
Tunable plasmon modes and topological transitions in single- and bilayer semi-Dirac materials
University of Regensburg（雷根斯堡大学）；Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, CSIC（物质结构研究所，西班牙国家研究委员会）；Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral（拉蒂拉尔高等理工学院）；Universidad Complutense（康普顿斯大学）
Due to strong mode-confinement, long propagation-distance, and unique tunability, graphene plasmons have been widely explored in the mid-infrared and terahertz windows. However, it remains a big challenge to push graphene plasmons to shorter wavelengths in order to integrate graphene plasmon concepts with existing mature technologies in the near-infrared region. We investigate localized graphene plasmons supported by graphene nanodisks and experimentally demonstrated graphene plasmon working at 2 μm with the aid of a fully scalable block copolymer self-assembly method. Our results show a promi…
Van der Waals heterostructures of atomically thin layers with rotational misalignments, such as twisted bilayer graphene, feature interesting structural moiré superlattices. Due to the quantum coupling between the twisted atomic layers, light-matter interaction is inherently chiral; as such, they provide a promising platform for chiral plasmons in the extreme nanoscale. However, while the interlayer quantum coupling can be significant, its influence on chiral plasmons still remains elusive. Here we present the general solutions from full Maxwell equations of chiral plasmons in twisted atomic b…
We propose a scheme to directionally couple light into graphene plasmons by placing a graphene sheet on a magneto-optical substrate. When a magnetic field is applied parallel to the surface, the graphene plasmon dispersion relation becomes asymmetric in the forward and backward directions. It is possible to achieve unidirectional excitation of graphene plasmons with normally incident illumination by applying a grating to the substrate. The directionality can be actively controlled by electrically gating the graphene, or by varying the magnetic bias. This scheme may have applications in graphen…
Graphene is considered to be plasmon active only up to the infrared based on combined tight binding model and random phase approximation calculations. Here we show that the optical properties of graphene as measured by ellipsometry and simulated by density functional theory imply the existence of strongly localized graphene plasmons in the visible with a line width of 0.1 eV. Using small emitters that provide the high wavevectors necessary to excite graphene plasmons at optical frequencies we demonstrate graphene plasmon induced excitation enhancement by nearly 3 orders of magnitude.
Two-dimensional graphene plasmon-based technologies will enable the development of fast, compact and inexpensive active photonic elements because, unlike plasmons in other materials, graphene plasmons can be tuned via the doping level. Such tuning is harnessed within terahertz quantum cascade lasers to reversibly alter their emission. This is achieved in two key steps: First by exciting graphene plasmons within an aperiodic lattice laser and, second, by engineering photon lifetimes, linking graphene's Fermi energy with the round-trip gain. Modal gain and hence laser spectra are highly sensitiv…
Sub-wavelength graphene structures support localized plasmonic resonances in the terahertz and mid-infrared spectral regimes. The strong field confinement at the resonant frequency is predicted to significantly enhance the light-graphene interaction, which could enable nonlinear optics at low intensity in atomically thin, sub-wavelength devices. To date, the nonlinear response of graphene plasmons and their energy loss dynamics have not been experimentally studied. We measure and theoretically model the terahertz nonlinear response and energy relaxation dynamics of plasmons in graphene nanorib…
Graphene is known to possess strong optical nonlinearity. Its nonlinear response can be further enhanced by graphene plasmons. Here, we report a novel nonlinear electro-absorption effect observed in nanostructured graphene due to excitation of graphene plasmons. We experimentally detect and theoretically explain enhanced nonlinear mixing of near-infrared and mid-infrared light in arrays of graphene nanoribbons. Strong compression of light by graphene plasmons implies that the effect is non-local in nature and orders of magnitude larger than the conventional local graphene nonlinearity. The eff…
Graphene hybrids, made of thin insulators, graphene, and metals can support propagating acoustic plasmons (AGPs). The metal screening modifies the dispersion relation of usual graphene plasmons leading to slowly propagating plasmons, with record confinement of electromagnetic radiation. Here, we show that a graphene monolayer, covered by a thin dielectric material and an array of metallic nanorods can be used as a robust platform to emulate the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. We calculate the Zak's phase of the different plasmonic bands to characterise their topology. The system shows bulk-edge co…
We demonstrate that graphene placed on top of structured substrates offers a novel approach for trapping and guiding surface plasmons. A monolayer graphene with a spatially varying curvature exhibits an effective trapping potential for graphene plasmons near curved areas such as bumps, humps and wells. We derive the governing equation for describing such localized channel plasmons guided by curved graphene and validate our theory by the first-principle numerical simulations. The proposed confinement mechanism enables plasmon guiding by the regions of maximal curvature, and it offers a versatil…
We assessed the efficiencies of surface plasmon excitation by an aloof-scattered electron beam on metals and graphene. Graphene is shown to exhibit high energy transfer efficiencies at very low electron kinetic energy requirements. We show that the exceptional performance of graphene is due to its unique plasmon dispersion, low electronic density and thin-film structure. The potential applications of these aloof-scattered graphene plasmons are discussed in aspects of coherent radiation.
Inelastic electron tunneling provides a low-energy pathway for the excitation of surface plasmons and light emission. We theoretically investigate tunnel junctions based on metals and graphene. We show that graphene is potentially a highly efficient material for tunneling excitation of plasmons because of its narrow plasmon linewidths, strong emission, and large tunability in the midinfrared wavelength regime. Compared to gold and silver, the enhancement can be up to 10 times for similar wavelengths and up to 5 orders at their respective plasmon operating wavelengths. Tunneling excitation of g…
We study localized plasmonic excitations in bilayer graphene (BLG) nanodisks, comparing AA-stacked and AB-stacked BLG and contrasting the results to the case of two monolayers without electronic hybridization. The electrodynamic response of the BLG electron gas is described in terms of a spatially homogeneous surface conductivity, and an efficient alternative two-dimensional electrostatic approach is employed to carry out all the numerical calculations of plasmon resonances. Due to a unique electronic band structures, the resonance frequency of the traditional dipolar plasmonic mode in the AA-…
Excitation of surface plasmons supported by doped graphene sheets at terahertz frequencies is investigated numerically. To alleviate the momentum mismatch between the highly-confined plasmon modes and the incident radiation, it is proposed to increase the surface conductivity of graphene through high doping levels or with few-layer graphene. For currently achievable doping levels, our analysis shows that surface plasmons on monolayer graphene may be excited at operating frequencies up to about 10 THz (~ 41.3 meV) with a high-index coupling prism, and higher frequencies/energies are possible fo…
We demonstrate that the interaction between two emitters can be controlled by means of the efficient excitation of surface plasmon modes in graphene. We consider graphene surface plasmons supported by either two-dimensional graphene sheets or one-dimensional graphene ribbons, showing in both cases that the coupling between the emitters can be strongly enhanced or suppressed. The super- and subradiant regimes are investigated in the reflection and transmission configurations. Importantly, the length scale of the coupling between emitters, which in vacuum is fixed by the free space wavelength, i…
We study electromagnetic scattering and subsequent plasmonic excitations in periodic grids of graphene ribbons. To address this problem, we develop an analytical method to describe the plasmon-assisted absorption of electromagnetic radiation by a periodic structure of graphene ribbons forming a diffraction grating for THz and mid-IR light. The major advantage of this method lies in its ability to accurately describe the excitation of graphene surface plasmons (GSPs) in one-dimensional (1D) graphene gratings without the use of both time-consuming, and computationally-demanding full-wave numeric…
A graphene sheet gated with a ridged ground plane, creating a soft-boundary (SB) graphene nanoribbon, is considered. By adjusting the ridge parameters and bias voltage a channel can be created on the graphene which can guide TM surface plasmon polaritons (SPP). Two types of modes are found; fundemental and higher-order modes with no apparent cutoff frequency and with energy distributed over the created channel, and edge modes with energy concen-trated at the soft-boundary edge. Dispersion curves, electric near-field patterns, and current distributions of these modes are determined. Since the l…
Surface plasmon, with its unique capability to concentrate light into sub-wavelength volume, has enabled great advances in photon science, ranging from nano-antenna and single-molecule Raman scattering to plasmonic waveguide and metamaterials. In many applications it is desirable to control the surface plasmon resonance in situ with electric field. Graphene, with its unique tunable optical properties, provides an ideal material to integrate with nanometallic structures for realizing such control. Here we demonstrate effective modulation of the plasmon resonance in a model system composed of hy…
We report on the enhancement of surface plasmon resonances in a holey bidimensional grating of subwavelength size, drilled in a gold thin film coated by a graphene sheet. The enhancement originates from the coupling between charge carriers in graphene and gold surface plasmons. The main plasmon resonance peak is located around 1.5 microns. A lower constraint on the gold-induced doping concentration of graphene is specified and the interest of this architecture for molecular sensing is also highlighted.
Electrons in graphene behave like relativistic Dirac particles which can reduce velocity of light by two orders of magnitude in the form of plasmon-polaritons. Here we show how these properties lead to a peculiar nonlinear plasmon response in the quasiclassical regime of terahertz frequencies. On one hand we show how interband plasmon damping is suppressed by the relativistic Klein tunneling effect. On the other hand we demonstrate huge enhancement of the nonlinear intraband response when plasmon velocity approaches the resonance with the electron Fermi velocity. This extreme sensitivity on th…
We demonstrate that plasmons in graphene can be manipulated using a DC current. A source-drain current lifts the forward/backward degeneracy of the plasmons, creating two modes with different propagation properties parallel and antiparallel to the current. We show that the propagation length of the plasmon propagating parallel to the drift current is enhanced, while the propagation length for the antiparallel plasmon is suppressed. We also investigate the scattering of light off graphene due to the plasmons in a periodic dielectric environment and we find that the plasmon resonance separates i…
We report a systematic plasmonic study of twisted bilayer graphene (TBLG) - two graphene layers stacked with a twist angle. Through real-space nanoimaging of TBLG single crystals with a wide distribution of twist angles, we find that TBLG supports confined infrared plasmons that are sensitively dependent on the twist angle. At small twist angles, TBLG has a plasmon wavelength comparable to that of single-layer graphene. At larger twist angles, the plasmon wavelength of TBLG increases significantly with apparently lower damping. Further analysis and modeling indicate that the observed twist-ang…
Electrostatic gating and optical pumping schemes enable efficient time modulation of graphene's free carrier density, or Drude weight. We develop a theory for plasmon propagation in graphene under temporal modulation. When the modulation is on the timescale of the plasmonic period, we show that it is possible to create a backwards-propagating or standing plasmon wave and to amplify plasmons. The theoretical models show very good agreement with direct Maxwell simulations.
In recent years, we have seen a rapid progress in the field of graphene plasmonics, motivated by graphene's unique electrical and optical properties, tunabilty, long-lived collective excitation and their extreme light confinement. Here, we review the basic properties of graphene plasmons; their energy dispersion, localization and propagation, plasmon-phonon hybridization, lifetimes and damping pathways. The application space of graphene plasmonics lies in the technologically significant, but relatively unexploited terahertz to mid-infrared regime. We discuss emerging and potential applications…
We report observation of graphene plasmon interference fringes across a wide spectral range using a scattering scanning near-field optical microscope (s-SNOM) that employs a widely tunable bank of quantum cascade lasers. We use plasmon interference to measure the dispersion curve of graphene plasmons over more than an order of magnitude of plasmon wavelength, from $λ_{sp}$ ~140 to ~1700 nm, and extract the electron Fermi energy of 298$\pm$4 meV for hydrogen-intercalated single layer epitaxial graphene on SiC. Furthermore, we demonstrate the appearance of wavelength tuneable graphene plasmon re…
We propose a scheme for coupling laser light into graphene plasmons with the help of electrically generated surface acoustic waves. The surface acoustic wave forms a diffraction grating which allows to excite the long lived phonon-like branch of the hybridized graphene plasmon-phonon dispersion with infrared laser light. Our approach avoids patterning the graphene sheet, does not rely on complicated optical near-field techniques, and allows to electrically switch the coupling between far field radiation and propagating graphene plasmons.
Graphene plasmons provide a suitable alternative to noble-metal plasmons because they exhibit much larger confinement and relatively long propagation distances, with the advantage of being highly tunable via electrostatic gating. We report strong light- matter interaction assisted by graphene plasmons, and in particular, we predict unprecedented high decay rates of quantum emitters in the proximity of a carbon sheet, large vacuum Rabi splitting and Purcell factors, and extinction cross sections exceeding the geometrical area in graphene ribbons and nanometer-sized disks. Our results provide th…
In this paper, we propose that both the quasi-transverse-magnetic (TM) and quasi-transverseelectric (TE) Airy plasmons can be supported in graphene-based waveguides. The solution of Airy plasmons is calculated analytically and the existence of Airy plasmons is studied under the paraxial approximation. Due to the tunability of the chemical potential of graphene, the self-accelerating behavior of quasi-TM Airy plasmons can be steered effectively, especially in multilayer graphene based waveguides. Besides the metals, graphene provides an additional platform to investigate the propagation of Airy…
Nonlinear properties of a multi-layer stack of graphene sheets are studied. It is predicted that such a structure may support dissipative plasmon-solitons generated and supported by an external laser radiation. Novel nonlinear equations describing spatial dynamics of the nonlinear plasmons driven by a plane wave in the Otto configuration are derived and the existence of single and multi-hump dissipative solitons in the graphene structure is predicted.
We experimentally demonstrate graphene-plasmon polariton excitation in a continuous graphene monolayer resting on a two-dimensional subwavelength silicon grating. The subwavelength silicon grating is fabricated by a nanosphere lithography technique with a self-assembled nanosphere array as a template. Measured transmission spectra illustrate the excitation of graphene-plasmon polaritons, which is further supported by numerical simulations and theoretical prediction of plasmonband diagrams. Our grating-assisted coupling to graphene-plasmon polaritons forms an important platform for graphene-bas…
Topologically protected plasmonic modes located inside topological bandgaps are attracting increasing attention, chiefly due to their robustness against disorder-induced backscattering. Here, we introduce a bilayer graphene metasurface that possesses plasmonic topological valley interface modes when the mirror symmetry of the metasurface is broken by horizontally shifting the lattice of holes of the top layer of the two freestanding graphene layers in opposite directions. In this configuration, light propagation along the domain-wall interface of the bilayer graphene metasurface shows unidirec…
Plasmonics can be used to improve absorption in optoelectronic devices and has been intensively studied for solar cells and photodetectors. Graphene has recently emerged as a powerful plasmonic material. It shows significantly less losses compared to traditional plasmonic materials such as gold and silver and its plasmons can be tuned by changing the Fermi energy with chemical or electrical doping. Here we propose the usage of graphene plasmonics for light trapping in optoelectronic devices and show that the excitation of localized plasmons in doped, nanostructured graphene can enhance optical…
Graphene plasmons promise exciting nanophotonic and optoelectronic applications. Owing to their extremely short wavelengths, however, the efficient coupling of photons to graphene plasmons - critical for the development of future devices - can be challenging. Here, we propose and numerically demonstrate coupling between infrared photons and graphene plasmons by the compression of surface polaritons on tapered bulk slabs of both polar and doped- semiconductor materials. Propagation of the surface phonon polaritons (in SiC) and surface plasmon polaritons (in n-GaAs) along the tapered slabs compr…
A novel broadband technique to effectively launch plasmons along a single graphene layer at terahertz (THz) frequencies is proposed. To this end, the coupling of the electromagnetic wave from a readily available plasmonic waveguide established by a periodically corrugated metallic surface to the graphene sheet is proposed. As will be shown, this technique can significantly surmount the need for efficient excitation of plasmons in graphene. For this purpose, an analytical technique based on transmission line theory is employed to calculate the scattering parameters of the connection of the plas…
Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is generally observed by excitation of surface plasmon polaritons on the metal (Au/Ag) surface. In order to utilize the SPR phenomenon for sensing application, the metal surface is functionalized with suitable ligands. Although such functionalization can enhance the specific adsorption capability of the sensor however due to large thickness of the ligands, the plasmonic field of the metal surface becomes less sensitive towards the adsorption of analytes. In the next generation SPR based sensor, graphene can be utilized not only as plasmonic material but also a s…
It has recently been demonstrated that difference frequency mixing (DFM) can generate surface plasmons in graphene [1]. Here, we present detailed calculations comparing the contributions to this effect from substrate and from graphene nonlinearities. Our calculations show that the substrate (quartz) nonlinearity gives rise to a surface plasmon intensity that is around twelve orders of magnitude smaller than that arising from the intrinsic graphene response. This surprisingly efficient intrinsic process, given the centrosymmetric structure of graphene, arises almost entirely due to non-local co…
We develop a theory to model the interaction of graphene substrate with localized plasmon resonances in metallic nanoparticles. The influence of a graphene substrate on the surface plasmon resonances is described using an effective background permittivity that is derived from a pseudoparticle concept using the electrostatic method. For this purpose, the interaction of metal nanoparticle with graphene sheet is studied to obtain the optical spectrum of gold nanoparticles deposited on a graphene substrate. Then, we introduce a factor based on dipole approximation to predict the influence of the s…
This work studies the optical binding of a dimer composed by dielectric particles close to a graphene sheet. Using a rigorous electromagnetic method, we calculated the optical force acting on each nanoparticle. In addition, we deduced analytical expressions enabling to evaluate the contribution of graphene surface plasmons (GSPs) to optical binding. Our results show that surface plasmon on graphene excitations generate multiple equilibrium positions for which the distance between particles are tens of times smaller than the photon wavelength. Moreover, these positions can be dynamically contro…
Graphene plasmons are rapidly emerging as a viable tool for fast electrical manipulation of light. The prospects for applications to electro-optical modulation, optical sensing, quantum plasmonics, light harvesting, spectral photometry, and tunable lighting at the nanoscale are further stimulated by the relatively low level of losses and high degree of spatial confinement that characterize these excitations compared with conventional plasmonic materials. We start with a general description of the plasmons in extended graphene, followed by analytical methods that lead to reasonably accurate est…
In the long-wavelength approximation, the effective conductivity tensor is introduced for graphene ribbons (strips) placed periodically at the interface between two media. The resulting conducting surface is considered as a coating for semiconductor nanowire. For the hybrid waves of such nanowire the dispersion equations are obtained in explicit form. Two types of surface plasmons are found to exist: (i) the modified surface plasmons, which originate from the ordinary surface plasmons of a graphene-coated semiconductor nanowire, and (ii) the spoof plasmons, which arise on the array of graphene…
Using perturbation expansion of Maxwell equations, the amplitude equation is derived for nonlinear TM and TE surface plasmon waves supported by graphene. The equation describes interplay between in-plane beam diffraction and nonlinerity due to light intensity induced corrections to graphene conductivity and susceptibility of dielectrics. For strongly localized TM plasmons, graphene is found to bring the superior contribution to the overall nonlinearity. In contrast, nonlinear response of the substrate and cladding dielectrics can become dominant for weakly localized TE plasmons.
We show that the Higgs mode of a superconductor, which is usually challenging to observe by far-field optics, can be made clearly visible using near-field optics by harnessing ultraconfined graphene plasmons. As near-field sources we investigate two examples: graphene plasmons and quantum emitters. In both cases the coupling to the Higgs mode is clearly visible. In the case of the graphene plasmons, the coupling is signaled by a clear anticrossing stemming from the interaction of graphene plasmons with the Higgs mode of the superconductor. In the case of the quantum emitters, the Higgs mode is…
