Graphene plasmonic lens for manipulating energy flow

Sci Rep. 2014 Feb 12:4:4073. doi: 10.1038/srep04073.

Abstract

Manipulating the energy flow of light is at the heart of modern information and communication technologies. Because photons are uncharged, it is still difficult to effectively control them by electrical means. Here, we propose a graphene plasmonic (GP) lens to efficiently manipulate energy flow by elaborately designing the thickness of the dielectric spacer beneath the graphene sheet. Different from traditional metal-based lenses, the proposed graphene plasmonic lens possesses the advantages of tunability and excellent confinement of surface plasmons. It is found that the proposed lens can be utilized to focus and collimate the GP waves propagating along the graphene sheet. Particularly, the lens is dispersionless over a wide frequency range and the performance of lens can be flexibly tuned by adjusting the bias voltage. As an application of such a lens, the image transfer of two point sources with a separation of λ₀/30 is demonstrated.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't