In this paper, we study the sensitivity-tunable Terahertz (THz) liquid/gas biosensor in a coupling prism-three-dimensional Dirac semimetal (3D DSM) multilayer structure. The high sensitivity of the biosensor originates from the sharp reflected peak caused by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) mode. This structure achieves the tunability of sensitivity due to that the reflectance could be modulated by the Fermi energy of 3D DSM. Besides, it is found that the sensitivity curve depends heavily on the structural parameters of 3D DSM. After parameter optimization, we obtained sensitivity over 100°/RIU for liquid biosensor. We believe this simple structure provides a reference idea for realizing high sensitivity and tunable biosensor device.
A surface plasmon resonance imaging biosensor based on $\text{MoS}_2$ deposited on Aluminium substrate is designed for high imaging sensitivity and detection accuracy. The proposed biosensor exhibits better performance than graphene-based biosensor in the near-infrared regime. A high imaging sensitivity of more than 970 $\text{RIU}^{-1}$ is obtained at the wavelength of 1540 nm. The effect of aluminium thickness, number of $\text{MoS}_2$ layers and the refractive index of sensing layer are investigated to obtain an optimized design for high sensor performance. In addition, the sensor performan…
Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), as promising alternative plasmonics supporting materials to graphene, exhibit potential applications in sensing. Here, we propose an ultrasensitive, accurate long-range surface plasmon resonance (LRSPR) imaging biosensor with two-dimensional TMDC layers, which shows higher detection accuracy than that of conventional SPR biosensor. It is found that the imaging sensitivity of the proposed LRSPR biosensor can be enhanced by the integration of TMDC layers, which is different from the previous graphene-based LRSPR or SPR imaging sensor, who…
The last two decades have witnessed an exponential growth and tremendous developments in wireless technologies and systems, and their associated applications. In the recent years following 2006, there has been a great surge in interest in the newly emerging plasmonics nanotechnology because this new device technology provides tremendous synergy between electronic and photonic devices. Electronics devices are down-scalable up to the nanoscale size but have limited processor speed due to thermal and signal delay issues associated with electronic devices. On the other hand, photonic devices have …
A mirrored bilayer structure incorporating layers of Graphene and MoS2 is proposed here for Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) biosensing and its performance is evaluated numerically. Starting from the basic configuration, the structure with graphene and MoS2 layers is gradually developed for enhanced performance. Reflectance is the main considered parameter for performance analysis. A theoretical framework based on Fresnel's equations is presented and by measuring reflectance versus angle of incidence, sensitivity is calculated from the displacement of SPR angle using finite-difference time-doma…
We analyze a whispering gallery mode biosensor with a metallic nanorod bound to its surface. It is found that a localized surface plasmon resonance in the nanorod can reduce the optical mode volume of the resonator by as much as four orders of magnitude via a local enhancement of the electric field, thus improving the detection sensitivity. Optical frequency shifts as large as 15 MHz are predicted for typical proteins and, for typical experimental parameters, the biosensor is predicted to be limited by laser frequency noise, leading to a minimum detectable polarizability on the order of 10 cub…
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are optical waves that propagate along a metal surface. They exhibit properties such as sub-wavelength localization and field enhancement which make them attractive for surface sensing, as commonly encountered in surface plasmon biosensors - the most widespread of all optical biosensors. Electrochemistry also occurs on metal surfaces, and electrochemical approaches are widely used to implement biosensors - electrochemical biosensors are the most prevalent biosensors in use. Given that metal surfaces are inherent to both techniques, it is natural to combine the…
One of the most important processes in the fight against current and future pandemics is the rapid diagnosis and initiation of treatment of viruses in humans. In these times, the development of high-sensitivity tests and diagnostic kits is an important research area. Plasmonic platforms, which control light in subwavelength volumes, have opened up exciting prospects for biosensing applications. Their significant sensitivity and selectivity allow for the non-invasive and rapid detection of viruses. In particular, plasmonic-assisted virus detection platforms can be achieved by various approaches…
Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) offers a powerful tool for label-free and non-invasive characterization of biomolecular interactions. To date, several experimental configurations, based on two fundamental physical phenomena, e.g., attenuated total reflection and diffraction, have been developed to measure the SPR signal generated due to the resonant interactions between incident light and plasma waves on the metal surface. These configurations are divided into three categories: grating-based, prism-based, and waveguide-based coupling. Among such techniques, one of the prism-based SPR coupling …
Most recently, two remarkable papers [New J. Phys. 21, 113004 (2019); IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron 27, 1 (2020)] propose broadband complete transfer terahertz (THz) surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) waveguide coupler by applying coherent quantum control -- Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP). However, previous researches request three SPPs waveguides coupler. In this paper, we propose a new design of a broadband complete transfer THz SPPs coupler with an innovative structure of two waveguides by employing two state adiabatic following. In order to realize this design, we introduc…
We consider a periodically gated two-dimensional electron system, with a central gate finger biased independently creating a tunable plasmonic cavity in a planar plasmonic crystal. We demonstrate that the plasmons resonantly excited in the periodic plasmonic lattice by incident terahertz radiation can strongly pump the cavity plasmon modes leading to a deep sub-wavelength concentration of terahertz energy with giant electric field enhancement factor up to 10000.
We demonstrate thermally tunable superconductor hole array with active control over their resonant transmission induced by surface plasmon polaritons . The array was lithographically fabricated on high temperature YBCO superconductor and characterized by terahertz-time domain spectroscopy. We observe a clear transition from the virtual excitation of the surface plasmon mode to the real surface plasmon mode. The highly tunable superconducting plasmonic hole arrays may have promising applications in the design of low-loss, large dynamic range amplitude modulation, and surface plasmon based terah…
A terahertz metamaterial consisting of radiative slot antennas and subradiant complementary split-ring resonators exhibits plasmon induced opacity in a narrow spectral range due to the destructive interference between the bright and dark modes of the coupled oscillators. Femtosecond optical excitations instantly quench the mode coupling and plasmon oscillations, injecting photocarriers into the metamaterial. The plasmon resonances in the coupled metamaterial are transiently restored by intense terahertz pulses. The strong terahertz fields induce intervalley scattering and interband tunneling o…
Tunable terahertz plasmons are essential for reconfigurable photonics, which have been demonstrated in graphene through gating, though with relatively weak responses. Here, we demonstrate strong terahertz plasmons in graphite thin films via infrared spectroscopy, with dramatic tunability by even a moderate temperature change or an in-situ bias voltage. Meanwhile, through magneto-plasmon studies, we reveal that massive electrons and massless Dirac holes make comparable contributions to the plasmon response. Our study not only sets up a platform for further exploration of two-component plasmas, …
Biosensors exploiting long-range surface plasmon polariton (LRSPP) waveguides comprised of Au stripes embedded in Cytop with integrated and encapsulated microfluidic channels are fabricated and demonstrated. A fabrication approach was devised where the lower cladding and recessed Au stripes are fabricated on a Si substrate, and the upper cladding and microfluidic channels are fabricated on a glass substrate, followed by wafer bonding to assemble the wafers into complete structures. The bond is centered over the full length of the optical path, yet no evidence of optical scattering or excess lo…
Optical modulators are essential parts of photonic circuits to encode electro-optical signals to the optical domain. Here, using arrays of multipixel toroidal plasmonic terahertz (THz) metamolecules, we developed a plasmonic metamodulator with high efficiency and tunability. Using the ultrasensitivity of the excited toroidal momentum to the incident THz beam power, we numerically and experimentally studied the plasmonic response of the proposed device. We showed that the proposed THz toroidal metamodulator have strong potential to be employed for practical advanced communication applications.
Graphene offers a possibility for actively controlling plasmon confinement and propagation by tailoring its spatial conductivity pattern. However, implementation of this concept has been hampered because uncontrollable plasmon reflection is easily induced by inhomogeneous dielectric environment. In this work, we demonstrate full electrical control of plasmon reflection/transmission at electronic boundaries induced by a zinc-oxide-based dual gate, which is designed to minimize the dielectric modulation. Using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, we show that the plasmon reflection can be va…
An electrically tunable terahertz (THz) plasmonic device is designed and fabricated using liquid metals (eutectic gallium indium EGaIn) and shape memory alloy wires (Flexinol). The liquid metal is injected into the voids of a poly(dimethyl) siloxane (PDMS) microfluidic mold forming a periodic array of subwavelength apertures, while the wires are inserted into the elastomer below the metal plane. When a DC voltage is applied to the wires, they contract via Joule heating, reducing the aperture periodicity and blue-shifting the transmission resonances of the device. When the voltage is removed, t…
We report Gold/Silica biochips for low cost biosensor devices. Firstly, the study of biochemical interactions on silica by means of Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) is presented. Secondly, Gold/Silica biochips are employed to reduce the strong quenching that occurs when a fluorophore is close to the gold surface. Furthermore, the control of the Silica-like thickness allows optimizing the distance between the metallic surface and the fluorophore in order to enhance the fluorescent signal. These results represent the first steps towards highly sensitive, specific and low cost biosensors based, fo…
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…
To efficiently integrate cutting-edge terahertz technology into compact devices, the highly confined terahertz plasmons are attracting intensive attentions. Compared to plasmons at visible frequencies in metals, terahertz plasmons, typically in lightly doped semiconductors or graphene, are sensitive to carrier density (n) and thus have an easy tunability, which, however, leads to unstable or imprecise terahertz spectra. By deriving a simplified but universal form of plasmon frequencies, here we reveal a unified mechanism for generating unusual n-independent plasmons (DIPs) in all topological s…
We study the dispersion relation of a metamaterial composed of metallic disks and bars arranged to have kagome symmetry and find that a plasmonic flat band is formed by the topological nature of the kagome lattice. To confirm the flat-band formation, we fabricate the metamaterial and make transmission measurements in the terahertz regime. Two bands formed by transmission minima that depend on the polarization of the incident terahertz beams are observed. One of the bands corresponds to the flat band, as confirmed by the fact that the resonant frequency is almost independent of the incident ang…
In this letter we show how the dispersion relation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) propagating along a perfectly conducting wire can be tailored by corrugating its surface with a periodic array of radial grooves. In this way, highly localized SPPs can be sustained in the terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Importantly, the propagation characteristics of these spoof SPPs can be controlled by the surface geometry, opening the way to important applications such as energy concentration on cylindrical wires and superfocusing using conical structures.
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…
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…
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…
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…
The surface plasmon-polaritons (SPPs) switch is the key element of the integrated devices in optical computation and terahertz (THz) communications. In this paper, we propose a novel design of THz SPPs switch based on quantum engineering. Due to the robustness of coherent quantum control technique, our switch is very robust against with perturbations of geometrical parameters and presents a good performance at on-state (and off-state) from 0.5 THz to 0.7 THz. The on-state and off-state of our device can be controlled by the external voltage. We believe this finding will be the great improvemen…
Plasmon induced transparency (PIT) effect in a terahertz graphene metamaterial is numerically and theoretically analyzed. The proposed metamaterial comprises of a pair of graphene split ring resonators placed alternately on both sides of a graphene strip of nanometer scale. The PIT effect in the graphene metamaterial is studied for different vertical and horizontal configurations. Our results reveal that there is no PIT effect in the graphene metamaterial when the centers of both the split ring resonators and the graphene strip are collinear to each other. This is a noteworthy feature, as the …
We propose a composite multilayer structure consist of graphene Tamm plasmon and Bragg reflector with defect layer to realize the low threshold and tunable optical bistability (OB) at the terahertz frequencies. This low-threshold OB originates from the couple of the Tamm plasmon (TP) and the defect mode (DM). We discuss the influence of graphene and the DM on the hysteretic response of the TM-polarized reflected light. It is found that the switch-up and switch-down threshold required to observe the optical bistable behavior are lowered markedly due to the excitation of the TP and DM. Besides, …
We propose a microscopic theory of terahertz (THz) radiation generation on metal gratings under the action of femtosecond laser pulses. In contrast to previous models, only low-frequency currents inside the metal are considered without involving electron emission. The presented model is based on plasmon-enhanced thermal effects and explains the resonant character of optical-to-THz conversion giving an adequate estimation for the full signal energy. Numerical modeling reproduces specific experimental features like delayed character of THz response and low conversion efficiency when the grating …
Graphene, owing to its ability to support plasmon polariton waves in the terahertz frequency range, enables the miniaturization of antennas to allow wireless communications among nanosystems. One of the main challenges in the demonstration of graphene antennas is finding suitable terahertz sources to feed the antenna. This paper estimates the performance of a graphene RF plasmonic micro-antenna fed with a photoconductive source. The terahertz source is modeled and, by means of a full-wave EM solver, the radiated power of the device is estimated with respect to material, laser illumination and …
Terahertz time domain spectroscopy employing free-space radiation has frequently been used to probe the elementary excitations of low-dimensional systems. The diffraction limit blocks its use for the in-plane study of individual laterally defined nanostructures, however. Here, we demonstrate a planar terahertz-frequency plasmonic circuit in which photoconductive material is monolithically integrated with a two-dimensional electron system. Plasmons with a broad spectral range (up to ~400 GHz) are excited by injecting picosecond-duration pulses, generated and detected by a photoconductive semico…
We disclose an unanticipated link between plasmonics and nonlinear frequency down-conversion in laser-induced gas-plasmas. For two-color femtosecond pump pulses, a plasmonic resonance is shown to broaden the terahertz emission spectra significantly. We identify the resonance as a leaky mode, which contributes to the emission spectra whenever electrons are excited along a direction where the plasma size is smaller than the plasma wavelength. As a direct consequence, such resonances can be controlled by changing the polarization properties of elliptically-shaped driving laser pulses. Both, exper…
In this paper, we utilize coupled mode theory (CMT) to model the coupling of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) between tri-layered corrugated thin films (CTF) structure coupler in the terahertz region. Employing the stimulated raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) quantum control technique, we propose a novel directional coupler based on SPPs evolution in tri-layered CTF in some curved configuration. Our calculated results show that the SPPs can be completely transferred from the input to the output CTF waveguides, and even we consider SPPs propagation loss, the transfer rate is still above 70%. Th…
We propose a graphene-on-grating nanostructure to enable second-order spatial differentiation computation in terahertz (THz) region. The differentiation operation is based on the interference between the direct reflected field and the leakage of two excited surface plasmon polaritons counter-propagating along the graphene sheet. With the spatial coupled-mode theory, we derive out that the requirement for the second-order spatial differentiation is the critical coupling condition. We numerically demonstrate such an analog computation with Gaussian beams. It shows that the spatial bandwidth of t…
The device applications of plasmonic systems such as graphene and two dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) in III-V heterostructures include terahertz detectors, mixers, oscillators and modulators. These two dimensional (2D) plasmonic systems are not only well-suited for device integration, but also enable the broad tunability of underdamped plasma excitations via an applied electric field. We present demonstrations of the coherent coupling of multiple voltage tuned GaAs/AlGaAs 2D plasmonic resonators under terahertz irradiation. By utilizing a plasmonic homodyne mixing mechanism to downconvert …
Spoof surface plasmon (SSP) meta-couplers that efficiently integrate other diversified functionalities into a single ultrathin device are highly desirable in the modern microwave and terahertz fields. However, the diversified functionalities, to the best of our knowledge, have not been applied to circular polarization meta-couplers because of the spin coupling between the orthogonal incident waves. In this paper, we propose and numerically demonstrate a terahertz spin-decoupled bifunctional meta-coupler for SSP excitation and beam steering. The designed meta-coupler is composed of a coupling m…
Photonic crystals and metamaterials have emerged as two classes of tailorable materials that enable precise control of light. Plasmonic crystals, which can be thought of as photonic crystals fabricated from plasmonic materials, Bragg scatter incident electromagnetic waves from a repeated unit cell. However, plasmonic crystals, like metamaterials, are composed of subwavelength unit cells. Here, we study terahertz plasmonic crystals of several periods in a two dimensional electron gas. This plasmonic medium is both extremely subwavelength ($\approx λ/100$) and reconfigurable through the applicat…
In this article, we examine plasmon induced transparency (PIT) effect in a parallel plate waveguide (PPWG) comprising of two similar pyramidal shaped grooves. One of the grooves is filled with air, while the other is filled with a dielectric material whose refractive index can be varied. The resonant frequencies corresponding to the air and dielectric grooves in the proposed configuration results in the transparency window which can be modulated with the refractive index of the dielectric material. The approach provides flexibility to actively control transparency effect in a waveguide configu…
Three-dimensional (3D) semimetals have been predicted and demonstrated to have a wide variety of interesting properties associated with its linear energy dispersion. In analogy to two-dimensional (2D) Dirac semimetals, such as graphene, Cd3As2, a 3D semimetal, has shown ultra-high mobility, large Fermi velocity, and has been hypothesized to support plasmons at terahertz frequencies. In this work, we demonstrate synthesis of high-quality large-area Cd3As2 thin-films through thermal evaporation as well as the experimental realization of plasmonic structures consisting of periodic arrays of Cd3As…
A new approach for the spatial and temporal modulation of electromagnetic fields at terahertz frequencies is presented. The waveguiding elements are based on plasmonic and metamaterial notions and consist of an easy-to-manufacture periodic chain of metallic box-shaped elements protruding out of a metallic surface. It is shown that the dispersion relation of the corresponding electromagnetic modes is rather insensitive to the waveguide width, preserving tight confinement and reasonable absorption loss even when the waveguide transverse dimensions are well in the subwavelength regime. This prope…
A hybrid metal-graphene metamaterial (MM) is reported to achieve the active control of the broadband plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) in THz region. The unit cell consists of one cut wire (CW), four U-shape resonators (USRs) and monolayer graphene sheets under the USRs. Via near-field coupling, broadband PIT can be produced through the interference between different modes. Based on different arrangements of graphene positions, not only can we achieve electrically switching the amplitude of broadband PIT, but also can realize modulating the bandwidth of the transparent window. Simultaneously,…
Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) is an important bio-sensing technique for real-time label-free detection. However, it is pivotal to optimize various parameters of the sensor configuration for efficient and highly sensitive sensing. To that effect, we focus on optimizing two different SPR structures -- the basic Kretschmann configuration and narrow groove grating. Our analysis aims to detect two different types of lipids known as phospholipid and eggyolk, which are used as analyte (sensing layer) and two different types of proteins namely tryptophan and bovine serum albumin (BSA) are used as li…
There is increasing interest in filling the gap of miniaturized terahertz/mid-infrared radiation sources and, particularly, in incorporating these sources into micro/nanophotonic circuits. By using rigorous electromagnetic methods, we investigate the lasing conditions and the electric-tunability of radiative and non radiative propagating surface-plasmon modes in cylinders made of active materials coated with a graphene layer. A detailed analysis of the lasing condition of different surface-plasmon modes shows that there is an abrupt change in the gain required when modes become nonradiative. A…
We report three-well, resonant-phonon depopulation terahertz quantum cascade lasers with semi-insulating surface-plasmon waveguides and reduced active region (AR) thicknesses. Devices with thicknesses of 10, 7.5, 6, and 5 μm are compared in terms of threshold current density, maximum operating temperature, output power and AR temperature. Thinner ARs are technologically less demanding for epitaxial growth and result in reduced electrical heating of devices. However, it is found that 7.5-μm-thick devices give the lowest electrical power densities at threshold, as they represent the optimal trad…
Plasmonic detectors have the potential to provide a method of rapid spectroscopy without the need of moving mirrors or gratings. Previous measurements have demonstrated frequency tunable detection based on plasmonic excitations, however these devices were either small area, polarization dependent and/or required e-beam lithography. We demonstrate that large area high sensitivity THz plasmonic detection can be achieved using self-assembly nanosphere lithography. We achieve a submicron feature size grid covering a detector area of 4 mm^2. The absorbance at the fundamental, third and 5th harmonic…
We propose a robust and broadband integrated terahertz (THz) coupler based on the in-plane surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) waveguides, conducted with the quantum coherent control -- Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP). Our coupler consists of two asymmetric specific curved corrugated metallic structures working as the input and output SPPs waveguides, and one straight corrugated metallic structure functioning as the middle SPPs waveguide. From the theoretical and simulated results, we demonstrate that the SPPs can be efficiently transfered from the input to the output waveguides. Our…
