Active plasmonic switching at mid-infrared wavelengths with graphene ribbon arrays

An active plasmonic switch based on single- and few-layer doped graphene ribbon array operating in the mid-infrared spectrum is investigated with theoretical and numerical calculations. It is shown that significant resonance wavelength shifts and modulation depths can be achieved with a slight variation of the doping concentration of the graphene ribbon. The few-layer graphene ribbon array device outperforms the single-layer one in terms of the achievable modulation depth. Our simulations reveal that, by modulating the Fermi-energy level between 0.2 eV and 0.25 eV, a four-layer graphene ribbon array device can achieve a modulation depth and resonance wavelength shift of ∼13 dB and 0.94 μm, respectively, compared to ∼2.8 dB and 1.85 μm for a single-layer device. Additionally, simple fitting models to predict the modulation depth and the resonance wavelength shift are proposed. These prospects pave the way towards ultrafast active graphene-based plasmonic devices for infrared and THz applications.

[1]  F. J. Garcia-Vidal,et al.  Surface plasmon enhanced absorption and suppressed transmission in periodic arrays of graphene ribbons , 2011, 1201.0191.

[2]  Kyoung Soon Choi,et al.  Increased Work Function in Few‐Layer Graphene Sheets via Metal Chloride Doping , 2012 .

[3]  Jingjun Xu,et al.  Tunable terahertz optical antennas based on graphene ring structures , 2012 .

[4]  K. Loh,et al.  Graphene photonics, plasmonics, and broadband optoelectronic devices. , 2012, ACS nano.

[5]  M. S. Shur,et al.  Electrically-induced n-i-p junctions in multiple graphene layer structures , 2010 .

[6]  F. Xia,et al.  Tunable infrared plasmonic devices using graphene/insulator stacks. , 2012, Nature nanotechnology.

[7]  Room-temperature Fano resonance tunable by chemical doping in few-layer graphene synthesized by chemical-vapor deposition , 2010, 1004.4042.

[8]  Ross Stanley,et al.  Plasmonics in the mid-infrared , 2012, Nature Photonics.

[9]  H. Bechtel,et al.  Graphene plasmonics for tunable terahertz metamaterials. , 2011, Nature nanotechnology.

[10]  N. Peres,et al.  Mechanism for graphene-based optoelectronic switches by tuning surface plasmon-polaritons in monolayer graphene , 2010, 1009.1739.

[11]  H. Raether.  Surface Plasmons on Smooth and Rough Surfaces and on Gratings , 1988 .

[12]  Federico Capasso,et al.  Beam engineering of quantum cascade lasers , 2012 .

[13]  A. N. Grigorenko,et al.  Graphene plasmonics , 2012, Nature Photonics.

[14]  K. Novoselov,et al.  Rayleigh imaging of graphene and graphene layers. , 2007, Nano letters.

[15]  N. M. R. Peres,et al.  Electronic transport in graphene : A semiclassical approach including midgap states , 2007, 0707.3004.

[16]  Zhaoyi Li,et al.  Modulation of mid-infrared light using graphene-metal plasmonic antennas , 2013 .

[17]  R. Soref.  Mid-infrared photonics in silicon and germanium , 2010 .

[18]  Sukosin Thongrattanasiri,et al.  Complete optical absorption in periodically patterned graphene. , 2012, Physical review letters.

[19]  Choon How Gan,et al.  Synthesis of highly confined surface plasmon modes with doped graphene sheets in the mid-infrared and terahertz frequencies , 2012, 1203.4308.

[20]  M. Lipson,et al.  Low-power-consumption short-length and high-modulation-depth silicon electrooptic modulator , 2003 .

[21]  W. Cai,et al.  Compact, high-speed and power-efficient electrooptic plasmonic modulators. , 2009, Nano letters.

[22]  P. Ajayan,et al.  Gated tunability and hybridization of localized plasmons in nanostructured graphene. , 2013, ACS nano.

[23]  Choon How Gan,et al.  Analysis of surface plasmon excitation at terahertz frequencies with highly doped graphene sheets via attenuated total reflection , 2012, 1303.0438.

[24]  Jae-Young Choi,et al.  Layer-by-layer doping of few-layer graphene film. , 2010, ACS nano.