Enhanced optical absorption in two-dimensional (2D) materials has recently moved into the focus of nanophotonics research. In this work, we present a gain-assisted method to achieve critical coupling and demonstrate the maximum absorption in undoped monolayer graphene in the near-infrared. In a two-port system composed of photonic crystal slab loaded with graphene, the gain medium is introduced to adjust the dissipative rate to match the radiation rate for the critical coupling, which is accessible without changing the original structural geometry. The appropriate tuning of the gain coefficient also enables the critical coupling absorption within a wide wavelength regime for different coupling configurations. This work provides a powerful guide to manipulate light-matter interaction in 2D materials and opens up a new path to design ultra-compact and high-performance 2D material optical devices.
We investigate the nonlinear optical features of a graphene sheet embedded in an active cavity and we show that, when tuned near its lasing threshold, the cavity is able to isolate the spatially localized graphene nonlinearity thus producing a very strong nonlinear device response with multi-valued features. As opposed to standard situations where the small thickness of the graphene sheet hampers its remarkable nonlinear optical properties to be exploited, in our scheme the strong nonlinear optical regime is mainly triggered by the very intrinsic planar localization of graphene nonlinearity. T…
We report on a C-band double layer graphene electro-absorption modulator on a passive SOI platform showing 29GHz 3dB-bandwith and NRZ eye-diagrams extinction ratios ranging from 1.7 dB at 10 Gb/s to 1.3 dB at 50 Gb/s. Such high modulation speed is achieved thanks to the quality of the CVD pre-patterned single crystal growth and transfer on wafer method that permitted the integration of high-quality scalable graphene and low contact resistance. By demonstrating this high-speed CVD graphene EAM modulator integrated on Si photonics and the scalable approach, we are confident that graphene can sat…
Deep and fast electro-optic modulation is critical for high-speed near infrared signal processing. We combine the electro-absorption tunability of graphene with the high-Q resonance of a Bragg-based Fabry-Perot resonator at λ=1550 nm and show that ~100% free-space signal modulation (>50 dB extinction ratio, <1 dB insertion loss) at high speed (>1 GHz) can always be achieved independently of graphene quality (mobility), provided the device is operating in reflection mode and tuned in critical coupling with graphene. Remarkably, the critical coupling mechanism produces a higher extinction ratio …
Enhancing the light-matter interaction in two-dimensional (2D) materials with high-$Q$ resonances in photonic structures has boosted the development of optical and photonic devices. Herein, we intend to build a bridge between the radiation engineering and the bound states in the continuum (BIC), and present a general method to control light absorption at critical coupling through the quasi-BIC resonance. In a single-mode two-port system composed of graphene coupled with silicon nanodisk metasurfaces, the maximum absorption of 0.5 can be achieved when the radiation rate of the magnetic dipole r…
We demonstrate greatly enhanced light absorption by monolayer graphene over a broad spectral range, from visible to near infrared, based on the attenuated total reflection. In the experiment, graphene is sandwiched between two dielectric media referred as superstrate and substrate. Based on numerical calculation and experimental results, the closer the refractive indices of the superstrate and the substrate, the higher the absorption of graphene will be. The light absorption of monolayer graphene up to 42.7% is experimentally achieved.
Perfect, narrow-band absorption is achieved in an asymmetric 1D photonic crystal with a monolayer graphene defect. Thanks to the large third order nonlinearity of graphene and field localization in the defect layer we demonstrate the possibility to achieve controllable, saturable absorption for the pump frequency.
We demonstrate that longitudinal plasmons in doped monolayer graphene can mediate highly efficient long-range energy transfer between nearby fluorophores, e.g., semiconductor quantum dots. We derive a simple analytical expression for the energy transfer efficiency that incorporates all the essential processes involved. We perform numerical calculations of the transfer efficiency for a pair of PbSe quantum dots near graphene for inter-fluorophore distances of up to 1 $μ$m and find that the plasmon-assisted long-range energy transfer can be enhanced by up to a factor of $\sim10^4$ relative to th…
A simple analysis is performed for the absorption properties of graphene; sandwiched between two media. For a proper choice of media and graphene doping/gating one can approach 50-100% absorption in the GHz-THz range for the one atom thick material. This absorption is controlled by a characteristic chemical potential which depends only on carrier life-time and the indexes of refraction of the dielectric embedding.
The optical absorption properties of graphene wrapped dielectric particles have been investigated by using Mie scattering theory and exact multi-scattering method. It is shown that subwavelength strong absorption in infrared spectra can take place in such systems due to the excitation of plasmon resonance in graphene. The absorption characteristics and efficiency are tunable by varying Fermi level and damping constant of graphene, or by changing size and dielectric constant of small particles. For a cluster of these particles, the absorption characteristics are also affected by the separation …
Graphene nanostructures that support surface plasmons have been utilized to create a variety of dynamically tunable light modulators, motivated by theoretical predictions of the potential for unity absorption in resonantly-excited monolayer graphene sheets. Until now, the generally low efficiencies of tunable resonant graphene absorbers have been limited by the mismatch between free-space photons and graphene plasmons. Here, we develop nanophotonic structures that overcome this mismatch and demonstrate electronically tunable perfect absorption achieved with patterned graphenes covering less th…
We report on the response of graphene to high intensity mid-IR radiation and show that graphene exhibits saturable absorption and significant two-photon absorption in the spectral region from 1.55 $μ$m to 3.50 $μ$m (0.35 eV to 0.80 eV). We find that the effective modulation depth of multilayer graphene is limited by two-photon absorption which will affect its performance as a laser mode-locking element. The measured saturation intensities of femtosecond pulses were found to depend on the third power of photon energy when we combined our results with others reported in literature, while those o…
We numerically demonstrate a novel monolayer graphene-based perfect absorption multi-layer photonic structure by the mechanism of critical coupling with guided resonance, in which the absorption of graphene can significantly close to 99% at telecommunication wavelengths. The highly efficient absorption and spectral selectivity can be obtained with designing structural parameters in the near infrared ranges. Compared to previous works, we achieve the complete absorption of single-atomic-layer graphene in the perfect absorber for the first time, which not only opens up new methods of enhancing t…
To fully utilize graphene's remarkable optical properties for optoelectronic applications, it needs to be integrated in planar photonic systems. Here, we demonstrate integration of graphene on silicon photonic circuits and precise measurement of the optical absorption coefficient in a graphene/waveguide hybrid structure. A method based on Mach-Zehnder interferometry is employed to achieve high measurement precision and consistency, yielding a maximal value of absorption coefficient of 0.2 dB/μm when graphene is located directly on top of the waveguide. The results agree with theoretical model …
Dirac Fermion, which is the low energy collective excitation near the Dirac cone in monolayer graphene, have gained great attention by low energy Terahertz probe. In the case of undoped graphene, it has been generally understood that the ultrafast terahertz thermal relaxation is mostly driven by the electron-phonon coupling (EOP), which can be prolonged to tens and hundreds of picoseconds. However, for the high doped graphene, which manifests the negative photoinduced terahertz conductivity, there is still no consensus on the dominant aspects of the cooling process on a time scale of a few pic…
In this paper, we proposed a theoretical model in the far-infrared and terahertz (THz) bands, which is a dumbbell-shaped graphene metamaterial arrays with a combination of graphene nanorod and two semisphere-suspended heads. We report a detailed theoretical investigation on how to enhance localized electric field and the absorption in the dumbbell-shaped graphene metamaterial arrays. The simulation results show that by changing the geometrical parameters of the structure and the Fermi level of graphene, we can change the absorption characteristics. Furthermore, we have discovered that the reso…
It is commonly believed that weak light-matter interactions in low-mobility graphene dramatically limits tunability of graphene-based optoelectronic devices, such as tunable absorbers or switches. In this paper, we develop and use a simple circuit model to understand absorption in graphene sheets. In particular, we show that light interacts weakly also with very high-mobility graphene sheets and propose systematic design means to overcome these problems. The results have allowed us to demonstrate in the terahertz band that perfect absorption with excellent electrical tunability can be achieved…
We theoretically and experimentally investigate the optical absorption properties of heterostructures composed of graphene films and truncated photonic crystals (PCs) in the visible range. The experimental results show that the absorption of the heterostructure is enhanced greatly in the whole forbidden gap of PCs compared with that of graphene alone. The absorption is enhanced over a wide angle of incidence for both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations. The enhanced absorption band broadens for TE polarization but narrows for TM polarization as the incident angl…
Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) has been intensively investigated and widely exploited to trap the incident light and enhance absorption in the optoelectronic devices. The availability of graphene as a plasmonic material with strong half-metallicity and continuously tunable surface conductivity makes it promising to dynamically modulate the absorption enhancement with graphene-based metamaterials. Here we numerically demonstrate tunable light trapping and absorption enhancement can be realized with graphene-based complementary metamaterials. Furthermore, we also explore the polarization sensit…
We demonstrate that linear absorption coefficient (LAC) of a graphene-silicon hybrid waveguide (GSHW) is determined by the optical transmission spectra of a graphene coated symmetrically coupled add-drop silicon microring resonator (SC-ADSMR), of which the value is around 0.23 dB/um. In contrast to the traditional cut-back method, the measured results are not dependent on the coupling efficiency of the fiber tip and the waveguide. Moreover, precision evaluation of graphene coated silicon microring resonator (SMR) is crucial for the optoelectronic devices targeting for compact footprint and low…
Periodic metallic structures are known to support resonant extraordinary transmission (EOT). When covered with graphene, these structures can be employed to effectively manipulate the light. In this work, we propose an analytical circuit model for graphene-covered one-dimensional metallic gratings. By using the circuit theory, we demonstrate that one-dimensional periodic array of cut-through slits which are covered by a continuous graphene sheet exhibit tunable EOT resonance whose amplitude, unlike its spectral position, can be dynamically tuned by varying the Fermi level of graphene. In this …
We study graphene on a photonic crystal operating in the terahertz (THz) spectral range. We show that the absorption of graphene becomes a modulated function of frequency and can be enhanced by more than three times at specific frequency values, depending on the parameters of the system. The problem of a semi-infinite photonic crystal is also solved.
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…
We present a model study to estimate the sensitivity of the optical absorption of multilayered graphene structure to the subnanometer interlayer separation. Starting from a transfer-matrix formalism we derive semi-analytical expressions for the far-field observables. Neglecting the interlayer separation, results in upper bounds to the absorption of 50% for real-valued sheet conductivities, exactly the value needed for coherent perfect absorption (CPA), while for complex-valued conductivities we identify upper bounds that are always lower. For pristine graphene the number of layers required to …
Perfect absorption of radiation in a graphene sheet may play a pivotal role in the realization of technologically relevant optoelectronic devices. In particular, perfect absorption of radiation in the terahertz (THz) spectral range would tremendously boost the utility of graphene in this difficult range of photon energies, which still lacks cheap and robust devices operating at room temperature. In this work we show that unpatterned graphene flakes deposited on appropriate substrates can display gate-tunable coherent perfect absorption (CPA) in the THz spectral range. We present theoretical es…
A dielectric multilayer platform has been investigated as a foundation for two-dimensional optics. In this paper, we present, to the best of our knowledge, the first experimental demonstration of absorption of Bloch surface waves in the presence of graphene layers. Graphene layers have been grown previously via CVD on Cu foils and transferred layer by layer by PMMA-wet transfer method. We exploit total internal reflection configuration and multi-heterodyne scanning near-field optical microscopy as a far-field coupling method and near-field characterization tool, respectively. The absorption is…
We investigate the absorption properties of graphene-based anisotropic metamaterial structures where the metamaterial layer possesses an electromagnetic response corresponding to a near-zero permittivity. We find that through analytical and numerical studies, near perfect absorption arises over an unusually broad range of beam incidence angles. Due to the presence of graphene, the absorption is tunable via a gate voltage, providing dynamic control of the energy transmission. We show that this strongly enhanced absorption arises due to a coupling between light and a fast wave-mode propagating a…
Optical extinction and absorption enhancement in the infrared range of a monolayer graphene sheet by patterning split ring resonators (SRRs) is studied. It is found that the electric mode is stronger in enhancing infrared extinction and absorption compared to the magnetic mode and other higher-order modes. We improve the infrared extinction of the SRR graphene sheet by increasing the graphene area ratio in the SRR unit cell design. With the increase of the graphene area ratio, the radiation ability of the electric dipolar mode and dissipation of graphene compete for a maximum infrared absorpti…
Absorption of terahertz waves by a metasurface comprising a biperiodic array of pixellated meta-atoms on top of a dielectric substrate backed by a perfect electric conductor was simulated using a commercial software, with either all or a few of the pixels in every meta-atom patched with graphene. Absorptances as high as 0.99 over a 1.16-THz-wide spectral regime for normal incidence were found for a metasurface comprising meta-atoms with only a few pixels patched with graphene, regardless of the polarization state. In comparison to metasurface absorbers comprising two graphene layers separated …
We show that surface-plasmon polaritons excited in negative permittivity metamaterials having shallow periodic surface corrugation profiles can be explored to push the absorption of single and continuous sheets of graphene up to 100%. In the relaxation regime, the position of the plasmonic resonances of the hybrid system is determined by the plasma frequency of the metamaterial, allowing the frequency range for enhanced absorption to be set without the need of engineering graphene.
Coherent perfect absorption (CPA) refers to interferometrically induced complete absorption of incident light by a partial absorber independently of its intrinsic absorption (which may be vanishingly small) or its thickness. CPA is typically realized in a resonant device, and thus cannot be achieved over a broad continuous spectrum, which thwarts its applicability to photodetectors and solar cells, for example. Here, we demonstrate broadband omni-resonant CPA by placing a thin weak absorber in a planar cavity and pre-conditioning the incident optical field by introducing judicious angular disp…
In this paper, we exploit the metagrating paradigm to achieve coherent control of absorption and reflection in a two-port device. Employing graphene ribbon as a tunable element allows us to, for the first time, realize a reconfigurable metagrating that integrates diversified coherent functionalities into a single planar structure. It is illustrated that the suggested design can behave as a coherent perfect absorber at multiple operating incident angles offered by its period-reconfigurability. Besides, our proposed metagrating is also capable of highly-efficient dynamic beam steering based on t…
In this article, a few-layered graphene-dielectric multilayer (metamaterial) electro-optic modulator has been proposed in the mid and far infrared range that works on electro-absorption mechanism. Graphene, both mono layer and few layer, is an actively tunable optical material that allows control of inter-band and intra-band transition by tuning its chemical potential. Utilizing this unique feature of graphene, we propose a multilayer graphene dielectric stack where few layer graphene is preferred over mono layer graphene. Although the total thickness of the stack still remains in the nanomete…
We demonstrate that 100% light absorption can take place in a single patterned sheet of doped graphene. General analysis shows that a planar array of small lossy particles exhibits full absorption under critical-coupling conditions provided the cross section of each individual particle is comparable to the area of the lattice unit-cell. Specifically, arrays of doped graphene nanodisks display full absorption when supported on a substrate under total internal reflection, and also when lying on a dielectric layer coating a metal. Our results are relevant for infrared light detectors and sources,…
Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) has been intensively studied and widely employed for light trapping and absorption enhancement. In the mid-infrared and terahertz (THz) regime, graphene supports the tunable SPR via manipulating its Fermi energy and enhances light-matter interaction at the selective wavelength. In this work, periodic arrays of graphene rings are proposed to introduce tunable light trapping with good angle polarization tolerance and enhance the absorption in the light-absorbing materials nearby to more than one order. Moreover, the design principle here could be set as a template…
The electromagnetic response of subwavelength wires coated with a graphene monolayer illuminated by a linearly polarized plane waves is investigated. The results show that the scattering and extintion cross-sections of the coated wire can be dramatically enhanced when the incident radiation resonantly excites localized surface plasmons. The enhancements occur for p--polarized incident waves and for excitation frequencies that correspond to complex poles in the coefficients of the multipole expansion for the scattered field. By dynamically tuning the chemical potential of graphene, the spectral…
Exerting well-defined control over the reflection $(R)$, absorption $(A)$, and transmission $(T)$ of electromagnetic waves is a key objective in quantum optics. To this end, one often utilizes hybrid structures comprised of elements with different optical properties in order to achieve features such as high $R$ or high $A$ for incident light. A desirable goal would be the possibility to tune between all three regimes of nearly perfect reflection, absorption, and transmission within the same device, thus swapping between the cases $R\to 1$, $A\to1$, and $T\to1$ dynamically. We here show that a …
Electrodynamic properties of the graphene - magnetic semiconductor - graphene sandwich-structure have been investigated theoretically with taking into account the dissipation processes. Influence of graphene layers on electromagnetic waves propagation in graphene - semi-infinte magnetic semiconductor and graphene - magnetic semiconductor - graphene sandwich-structure has been analyzed. Frequency and field dependences of the reflectance, transmittance and absorbtance of electromagnetic waves by such structure have been calculated. The size effects associated with the thickness of the structure …
We exploited graphene nanoribbons based meta-surface to realize coherent perfect absorption (CPA) in the mid-infrared regime. It was shown that quasi-CPA frequencies, at which CPA can be demonstrated with proper phase modulations, exist for the graphene meta-surface with strong resonant behaviors. The CPA can be tuned substantially by merging the geometric design of the meta-surface and the electrical tunability of graphene. Furthermore, we found that the graphene nanoribbon meta-surface based CPA is realizable with experimental graphene data. The findings of CPA with graphene meta-surface can…
High-harmonic generation (HHG) in condensed-matter systems is both a source of fundamental insight into quantum electron motion and a promising candidate to realize compact ultraviolet and ultrafast light sources. Here we argue that the large light intensity required for this phenomenon to occur can be reached by exploiting localized plasmons in conducting nanostructures. In particular, we demonstrate that doped graphene nanostructures combine a strong plasmonic near-field enhancement and a pronounced intrinsic nonlinearity that result in efficient broadband HHG within a single material platfo…
Saturable absorption is a non-perturbative nonlinear optical phenomenon that plays a pivotal role in the generation of ultrafast light pulses. Here we show that this effect emerges in graphene at unprecedentedly low light intensities, thus opening avenues to new nonlinear physics and applications in optical technology. Specifically, we theoretically investigate saturable absorption in extended graphene by developing a non-perturbative single-particle approach, describing conduction-electron dynamics in the atomically-thin material using the two-dimensional Dirac equation for massless Dirac fer…
Microscopic quantum theory of nonlinear stimulated scattering of 2D Dirac particles in doped graphene on Coulomb field of impurity ions at the presence of an external strong coherent electromagnetic radiation is developed. We consider high Fermi energies and low frequencies (actually terahertz radiation) to exclude the valence electrons excitations. The Liouville-von Neumann equation for the density matrix is solved analytically, taking into account the interaction of electrons with the scattering potential in the Born approximation. With the help of this solution, the nonlinear inverse-bremss…
Coherent perfect absorber (CPA) was proposed as the time-reversed counterpart to laser: a resonator containing lossy medium instead of gain medium can absorb the coherent optical fields completely. Here, we exploit a monolayer graphene to realize the CPA in a non-resonant manner. It is found that quasi-CPA point exists in the terahertz regime for suspending monolayer graphene, and the CPA can be implemented with the assistant of proper phase modulation among two incident beams at the quasi-CPA frequencies. The graphene based CPA is found of broadband angular selectivity: CPA point splits into …
