Biomimetic ‘moth-eye’ anti-reflection design on the graphene sheet

In this paper we propose the biomimetic moth-eye anti-reflection structures on graphene sheet based on transformation optics. The reflections of such structures are investigated by analytical Effective Medium Theory combined with Transfer Matrix Method (EMT/TMM) and numerical Finite Element Method (FEM). Both analytical and numerical methods have shown that the average reflection losses of 1% can be achieved within midinfrared region. Moreover, such performance can be maintained to a very wide incidence angle, achieving less than 1% reflection up to 60° incident angle. The proposed moth-eye anti-reflection structures may provide new visions to achieve biomimetic designs with superior photonic functionalities on graphene-based devices. 2015 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (240.6680) Surface plasmons; References and links 1. S. A. Maier, Plasmonics: Fundamentals and Applications (Springer, New York, 2007). 2. K. S. Novoselov, A. K. Geim, S. V. Morozov, D. Jiang, M. I. Katsnelson, I. V. Grigorieva, S. V. Dubonos, and A. A. Firsov, "Two-dimensional gas of massless Dirac fermions in graphene," Nature 438, 197-200 (2005). 3. L. Ju, B. Geng, J. Horng, C. Girit, M. Martin, Z. Hao, H. A. Bechtel, X. Liang, A. Zettl, Y. R. Shen, and F. Wang, "Graphene plasmonics for tunable terahertz metamaterials," Nature nanotechnology 6, 630-634 (2011). 4. A. Vakil and N. Engheta, "Transformation optics using graphene," Science 332, 1291-1294 (2011). 5. R. A. Potyrailo, H. Ghiradella, A. Vertiatchikh, K. Dovidenko, J. R. Cournoyer, and E. Olson, "Morpho butterfly wing scales demonstrate highly selective vapour response," Nature Photonics 1, 123-128 (2007). 6. T. Khudiyev, T. Dogan, and M. Bayindir, "Biomimicry of multifunctional nanostructures in the neck feathers of mallard (Anas platyrhynchos L.) drakes," Scientific reports 4, 4718 (2014). 7. M. Kolle, A. Lethbridge, M. Kreysing, J. J. Baumberg, J. Aizenberg, and P. Vukusic, "Bio-inspired band-gap tunable elastic optical multilayer fibers," Advanced materials 25, 2239-2245 (2013). 8. P. I. Stavroulakis, S. A. Boden, T. Johnson, and D. M. Bagnall, "Suppression of backscattered diffraction from sub-wavelength 'moth-eye' arrays," Optics express 21, 1-11 (2013). 9. D. G. Stavenga, S. Foletti, G. Palasantzas, and K. Arikawa, "Light on the moth-eye corneal nipple array of butterflies," Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society 273, 661-667 (2006). 10. K. Han and C.-H. Chang, "Numerical Modeling of Sub-Wavelength Anti-Reflective Structures for Solar Module Applications," Nanomaterials 4, 87-128 (2014). 11. W. Gao, J. Shu, C. Qiu, and Q. Xu, "Excitation of plasmonic waves in graphene by guided-mode resonances," ACS nano 6, 7806-7813 (2012). 12. J. S. Gomez-Diaz and J. Perruisseau-Carrier, "Graphene-based plasmonic switches at near infrared frequencies," Optics express 21, 15490-15504 (2013). 13. L. A. Falkovsky, "Optical properties of graphene and IV–VI semiconductors," Physics-Uspekhi 51, 887-897 (2008). 14. J. Tao, X. Yu, B. Hu, A. Dubrovkin, and Q. J. Wang, "Graphene-based tunable plasmonic Bragg reflector with a broad bandwidth," Optics letters 39, 271-274 (2014). 15. E. E. Perl, W. E. McMahon, R. M. Farrell, S. P. DenBaars, J. S. Speck, and J. E. Bowers, "Surface structured optical coatings with near-perfect broadband and wide-angle antireflective properties," Nano letters 14, 5960-5964 (2014). 16. E. E. Perl, W. E. McMahon, J. E. Bowers, and D. J. Friedman, "Design of antireflective nanostructures and optical coatings for next-generation multijunction photovoltaic devices," Optics express 22 Suppl 5, A1243-1256 (2014). 17. E. Hecht and A. Ganesan, Optics (Pearson Education, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2002). 18. H. Oraizi and M. Afsahi, "Analysis of planar dielectric multilayers as FSS by transmission line transfer matrix method (TLTMM)," Progress In Electromagnetics Research, PIER (2007). 19. J. Junesch, T. Sannomiya, and A. B. Dahlin, "Optical properties of nanohole arrays in metal-dielectric double films prepared by mask-on-metal colloidal lithography," ACS nano 6, 10405-10415 (2012). 20. S. J. Wilson and M. C. Hutley, "The Optical Properties of 'Moth Eye' Antireflection Surfaces," Journal of Modern Optics 29, 993-1009 (1982).