Electrically tunable damping of plasmonic resonances with graphene

Nano Lett. 2012 Oct 10;12(10):5202-6. doi: 10.1021/nl302322t. Epub 2012 Sep 11.

Abstract

Dynamic switching of a plasmonic resonance may find numerous applications in subwavelength optoelectronics, spectroscopy, and sensing. Graphene shows a highly tunable carrier concentration under electrostatic gating, and this could provide an effective route to achieving electrical control of the plasmonic resonance. In this Letter, we demonstrate electrical control of a plasmonic resonance at infrared frequencies using large-area graphene. Plasmonic structures fabricated on graphene enhance the interaction of the incident optical field with the graphene sheet, and the impact of graphene is much stronger at mid-infrared wavelengths. Full-wave simulations, where graphene is modeled as a 1 nm thick effective medium, show excellent agreement with experimental results.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.